Ginyu

Chapter 64: What We Made


They proceeded through the sky in a line- Nail in front, followed by Tien and Yamcha. Bez, as he preferred, headed up the rear. He needed the space to think.

It wasn't too long ago he was in the PTO, scraping by mission-to-mission, trying not to think about what that scraping entailed. It wasn't too long ago that he was killing others to keep himself alive. Hell, he may have done that last one in the past day- it was impossible to tell how much time had passed on a planet where the sun- really, suns- never sets.

Bez examined his hands. Cui's blood, dark red and flaky, could still be found in dried splotches up and down his arms. With a frown, Bez started to rub the patches out of his jumpsuit.

It also wasn't too long ago that he was rushing into battle alongside former enemies, or saving someone by putting his life in danger. He had, somehow, done both incredibly selfish and altruistic, even marytyrical, acts as of late. They belonged to him.

He was, and always had been, amazed and horrified by his ability to change.

If he was being totally, truthfully honest with himself- his recent actions were changing him, or at least pushing him back to who he was before the PTO and their ships appeared above his home planet's orbit, rained down ordinance from the sky, and hunted his people down one by one like the cruel monsters they are. But whether or not he could hold onto what he became once he finished that shift was another question entirely.

Yamcha had said he felt this battle would be the last. So what comes after that, then?

'Should I come back later?'

Bez blinked and focused his attention forward- Yamcha, head half-turned to him, had pulled back from the others and was hovering in front of him and a little to his left. His short, spiky hair, unresisting the wind, was blown back and across the right side of his face. Bez made a small gesture with his head and the human moved further back to fly side-by-side with him.

'What were you thinking about just now?' Yamcha asked, moving his gaze back to Tien and Nail further in front of them. When Bez didn't respond, Yamcha hummed. 'Not in the mood to talk about it?'

'Can I ask you a question?' Bez asked abruptly. 'What do you plan to do once your business is finished on this planet? After you've fulfilled your pledge to protect the Namekians?'

'After? Well, once that's done, I'll return to my home on Earth, and go back to living my life- a normal life, or at least more normal than what I'm living through right now.'

Bez's expression darkened. 'I see.'

Yamcha glanced to him and refocused his gaze forward. 'I take it that your thinking's been centered on this topic. What comes after.'

'Some of it, yes.'

Yamcha chuckled. 'You could have said that to my original question.' Before Bez could respond, he went on: 'Are you still committed to the plan you told us on the shuttle? The one where you get dropped off at a backwater planet far away from the galactic mainstream and the PTO, and try to live out a quiet life?'

'I don't know.'

Yamcha hummed again. 'You're moving in the right direction then, because, personally, I think that was a crummy plan.'

Bez tilted his head sideways and shot Yamcha a look. 'Why do you say that?'

'Well,' Yamcha brushing his gaze over to the ground, 'I can get why you'd want to hide out on a planet where the PTO won't be, but let me ask you this- have you ever considered Earth?'

'Your home planet?' Bez asked quietly.

'It's got good food, friendly people, a mostly stressless pace of life, those sorts of things,' Yamcha continued. 'It would be easy to lay low there and you'd have fun doing so, too. And, the way I see it, once we're done here, you'll be a wanted man anywhere else in the galaxy, same as us. Even if the PTO isn't on a far-flung planet now, who's to say that won't change in the future? Shouldn't be too hard for them to overrun, in your words, a "backwater planet". But, no Earth-' Yamcha shook his head, smiling, '-not a chance of that happening. My friends and I would fight tooth-and-nail against anyone who tried to take our planet away from us. So… that might make it one of the safest planets in the galaxy, and the best place for you to hide.'

Quiet fell on them. Bez made a face and looked away. 'Is that an offer?'

'It's an invitation,' Yamcha clarified. 'An expression of our goodwill. For, well- for everything you've done for us. For saving us, fighting alongside us.' Yamcha's gaze stretched forward. 'Not many people would have fought as much as you, or as hard as you, for people they didn't know. Doing so meant that you placed a lot of trust in us. Considering everything… you've helped us, time and time again when others wouldn't have.' Yamcha paused. 'That includes saving Bulma. Twice. More than anything else, Tien and I are thankful for that, and I'm sure she is, too, considering, well- you know.'

There was a slight edge to Yamcha's last sentence, and Bez remembered something that he had thought of earlier. He looked ahead- Piccolo, as he had been for their entire flight, was nowhere to be seen.

'Piccolo nearly killed Bulma,' Bez said in a low voice, curling and uncurling his fingers. 'He threw an attack into the middle of the PTO army that had captured her and blew it to pieces. I was too far away to do anything when it went down- I could only rush in after and retrieve her.' He glanced over to Yamcha, and saw the dead seriousness in his eyes. 'It's a miracle that she survived.'

Yamcha held Bez's gaze, closed his eyes, and let out a heavy breath. 'I figured as much,' he said with a steady voice. 'Or, rather, Tien figured as much and told me. But thank you for confirming that. Makes things as clear as they're going to be.'

Bez looked towards the ground. 'I didn't put everything together until I heard you and Tien address Piccolo. When I saw him attacking the PTO, I thought he might have been one of the Namekians. Is he- will he be an issue in the upcoming battle?'

Yamcha's hair waved in the wind. 'We can trust him, for now,' he said. 'Beyond that? Who knows.' Yamcha opened his eyes and focused his attention on Bez again. 'But we can't kill him. Otherwise, we'll lose what we came here to get and just got back- our dragonballs.'

'I see,' Bez murmured. 'So you can't do anything to him.'

'We can talk to him,' Yamcha countered. 'See what he has to say. Neither Tien or I have talked to him since he died on Earth. Judging by what he's done so far on Namek, it doesn't seem like he's changed much… but maybe, even with his added strength, when we get back to Earth, he'll be… complacent. I hope.'

'I hope so, too.'

'Hmm.' Yamcha's head lifted. 'I think we're almost there. Do you mind?-'

'Go ahead,' Bez said, guessing what Yamcha was going to say. 'Rejoin Tien.'

With a nod, Yamcha flew ahead and did so.

A few minutes later, the vacated village came into focus on the low horizon. Bez watched Tien and Yamcha take the lead from Nail and land first. They landed in the village's center and faced to the east. Bez also… felt- or realized, or determined, or whatever word worked best to describe his spontaneously developed ability to sense energy without a scouter- that Piccolo was in the village as well.

When he descended after Nail, Bez saw up close Tien and Yamcha, in a line, ready for anything that may come from over the horizon, and he couldn't quite suppress a thought on what he saw. These humans are strange… and the universe is better for it.

0o0o0

Once he had landed among the eerie, empty buildings of the village, pushing away dirt and dust in low rolls across the ground, and decloaked himself of his blue aura, Piccolo staggered over to one of the buildings and leaned against it with his hand. He knew he should have been on the lookout for the arrival of those four significant powers- but he could do nothing else but screw his eyes shut, grit his teeth, and try to get a grip on his thoughts.

It was beyond distraction now- his entire conscious seemed plagued. The chaotic buzz grinding through his mind, nipping at the edges of his thoughts and spreading to every sense he possessed, had grown over the past hour. Using meditation earlier to quell it had done nothing. A mess of feelings and impressions swam through his mind, unprompted and alien, every time he looked or even thought of one of those maddening Namekians. It was like he had just been born again, forced to listen to his father's embedded last words and compulsions played over and over again in his mind, except that this time, there was no order or apparent origin to anything he experienced. Hatred, warmth, crushing apathy, and scenes wholly alien to him- it all came and went as it pleased, oblivious to his existence.

Shuddering, Piccolo walked further on, leaning on buildings as he went. Nothing of the earlier euphoria he had felt towards his strength remained. His legs felt leaden and his arms felt weak, and his head bobbed up and down against his chest, flinging his antennae in every possible direction. And the sweat- by the Kais, he was drenched in it.

He began to doubt whether he had actually flown here. He felt closer to unconsciousness than whatever torture he was putting himself through at the moment.

'What are you doing here?'

He turned. A monster- a hulking, dark-green monster, with fangs as large as his arms and antennae- towered over him and drew closer, casting his shadow over Piccolo. The light from two of Namek's three suns melted back, pushed away by the depthless darkness growing all around him.

Piccolo should have been fearful. Instead, he closed his eyes, shook his head, and looked again. There was no looming, frightening green apparition in front of him. It was only Nail, inexpressive as usual, who glared at him. Piccolo's antennae went limp.

The Namekian warrior ran his eyes up and down him and stepped closer. 'What's wrong with you?' Nail accosted him. 'And why are you over here, leaning against this wall?'

Grimacing, and trying his best to focus on Nail's real and present image, Piccolo raised a hand to his head and began to probe his face. 'I… feel ill. Something isn't right.' He moved closer to the wall, and in the process, he moved a step closer to Nail. '... I don't know why.'

'You flew here.'

Piccolo's hearing caught something- lifting his head, he noticed that Nail had retreated a step. 'So?'

'You were well enough to decimate a PTO army not too long ago, and judging by what I sensed, you flew here without trouble. I am not too proud to admit- though I detest the fact- that you are now stronger than me. So, to clarify-' Nail's gaze sharpened, '-what do you mean, "something isn't right"?'

Piccolo's head dipped again. 'Like I said, I don't know…'

The aural ambiance of the surrounding village floated in and out of their conversation at times. Piccolo heard footsteps not too far off.

'What do you see when you look at me? What do you feel?' Nail asked point-blank.

'What?' Piccolo said, annoyed. He hadn't raised his head towards Nail. 'What are you talking about?' he growled.

'Do it. Look at me.'

Piccolo hesitated. He clenched his teeth. 'I see… you. I see Nail.'

'Do it!'

Startled, Piccolo looked at Nail- and saw. Everything unexplained that had riveted his mind drew to Nail's image and swarmed it. A single point where every plague of his descended onto. The process, consciously, was incomprehensible, but centering his confusion outward and not inward gave his mind a needed respite.

'What do you see?' Nail's voice floated over to him, its character altered and filtered, yet still distinguishable as his own.

Piccolo withdrew his hand from his face. 'I wouldn't describe it.'

'Wouldn't or couldn't?'

'Both.' Piccolo stared at Nail. 'Shapes, flashes, tricks of light and color…' he said after some time. 'Nothing makes sense. It's… madness. Or maddening. I don't know which yet.'

There was a subtle shift in Nail's posture, observable even through the passing phenomenon pooling around his position. Piccolo sensed something he hadn't sensed before in Nail.

'His name was Leera,' Nail stated.

A sharp breath rushed into Piccolo's lungs. Nail's outline, mostly hidden behind whatever hallucination or experience gripped Piccolo, became crisper. 'What did you say?' Piccolo breathed.

Nail made a gesture with his head. Things weren't clear enough yet- because, yes, Piccolo realized, whatever stood between Nail and himself was thinning- to catch what Nail had done or what he had meant. 'Pull yourself together quickly,' The Namekian warrior said, turning, 'if not for our sake, then for your own. They're almost here.'

The spot in Piccolo's conscious world where nonsense reigned followed in Nail's wake. It was as if he simply tugged along Piccolo's confusion behind him.

After a span of time spent focused on the withdrawing and weakening chaos, Piccolo, with finality, heard Nail's faint footsteps recede. For an even longer time after that, Piccolo palmed the name given to him in his mind, turning it back and forth as if there was something more to what he thought he knew of it. There wasn't. It was just a name. A name he had never heard before. And yet it spoke to him like nothing else before it.

Just a name. And Piccolo loathed to admit that it steadied him, somehow. He felt no cold patches of sweat on his skin; he moved away from the wall and stood to his full height. His power, back to bubbling at the very bottom of his consciousness, felt cool pressed against his mind. He took a deep breath, and made his first step back to the others.

His last step halted him on the edge of the village's center and open gathering space, where nothing but short, crimped blue grass grew. Piccolo had rejoined late, it seemed- to his left, he spied Nail, with Yamcha, Tien, and Bez standing in a line behind him, facing down a near-identical arrangement of people opposite of him.

A purple alien, three soldiers behind him- one red skinned and short, one red-haired and tall, one short, stubby and green- returned Nail's appraising look- no. Something is different. They look more on edge. The one in front… two in front...

The tall, imposing purple alien with bulging veins and two jutting head spikes- the one that, after checking his memory, Piccolo identified as the strongest and most dangerous enemy left- stood over a fifth person. Someone familiar. Narrowing his eyes, Piccolo noted the green skin and blue hair of the person who kneeled on the ground and visibly struggled to breathe. It was the one who had given him his first true fight on Namek- and the first he had dominated later on.

I didn't know he was still alive. Then again, I didn't check before to see whether he was dead, either.

While Piccolo reflected on this, the two groups noticed him. The purple alien, in particular, turned towards him. Piccolo recognized mania on his face.

'There you are!' the purple alien said, sounding both relieved and impatient. 'Well, then-'

With a strained grin, he violently yanked the bruised and battered person below off his feet and pushed him several feet in Piccolo's direction. 'Go on- fight him! Finish your fight, Zarbon!' The grin trembled away and was replaced by something much darker. 'You started it, after all!'

0o0o0

According to their scouters, the highest readings on this planet had conveniently congregated in one spot for them. Not a single person in the Ginyu Force confused convenience for ease, however. One of their own had died this day. Every single one of them was in unfamiliar territory. And even worse- the leader of their metaphorical ship seemed the most lost of them all.

Jeice, who had served in the Ginyu Force for thirty years without ever having doubted his Captain, was now doing so.

'Recoome,' he whispered to the red giant to his right. They both stood behind and to the right of Ginyu and Zarbon. The latter swayed on his feet. 'The Captain, he's…'

'Not right,' Recoome replied, finishing Jeice's thought.

'Burter's death must've really set him off.'

'Yeah. He didn't even introduce us with our poses.'

They watched as Ginyu prodded Zarbon forward further. Half a dozen times the green alien looked like he would collapse, but every time, Ginyu was behind him, holding him by the roots of his messy and undone green hair. 'This… this bloody is hard to watch,' Jeice muttered. 'I mean, I cared about Burter, loved him as much as everyone else- he was- he was all our brother- but, this…'

Zarbon was halfway done with his trek when he stopped. Weak trembling rocked his legs; it looked like he could walk no further.

A swift boot to his back proved otherwise. Zarbon stumbled forward a few feet and just began to regain his balance when Ginyu kicked him again and knocked him decisively to the ground. Blades of blue grass spurted out from under Zarbon's body, and Jeice watched the wind take one beyond the village's limits.

'Get up!' Ginyu growled as he gripped Zarbon by his shoulders and wrenched the beaten man to his feet.'You stop when I tell you to stop! You die when I tell you to die! I command you!'

Jeice exchanged a look with first Recoome, then Guldo to his right. They both looked to be as concerned as he was. 'Captain,' he said, stepping forward, 'if I may, as your lieutenant-'

'Can it, Jeice!' Ginyu barked at him, twisting his head towards him, veins bulging on his neck. 'If I want your advice, I'll ask for it! Right now!-' Ginyu swung his gaze back around to his front and squared it on someone several strides away, '-right now, I speak to him! No one else!'

Unfazed by Ginyu's and everyone else's eyes on him, Piccolo studied Zarbon. There was no deception at play here- the near-dead man before him, who didn't seem capable of throwing a punch, let alone staying conscious, was just as spent as he appeared. 'Who are you?' the Namekian asked in an even and steady voice, turning his gaze on Ginyu.

'Ah!' Ginyu exclaimed, sweeping his arms over him as if he was introducing something rarified. At least, that's what Piccolo thought he was doing, because the end result ended up being something far more unsettling than what was probably intended. Ginyu's shaking and coiled arms only added to Piccolo's impression of him as a person who'd lost a key part of their sanity. 'I am Captain Ginyu, of the Ginyu Force. The people behind me are my men, and this worm,' he said, casting his eyes down to Zarbon and nudging him in his side for good measure, 'is Zarbon. He is, I understand, someone you've met before. If not in person, then through their plans- you know that he was the commander of this operation, do you not?'

Piccolo's eyes flickered back and forth between the two soldiers. 'Was?'

A grin stretched itself on Ginyu's face. 'Let me explain. You see, this was his plan,' Ginyu said, shifting his gaze towards Nail, Yamcha, Tien, and Bez to his right. 'He was given the task of securing- three of you, if I remember correctly. Rogue Saiyans had supposedly destroyed a base of our ours; PTO property, just so we're clear. This information was told to Zarbon by an arguably rogue Saiyan- and Zarbon, like the naive fool that he is, believed this Saiyan's word! He lapped it up like an Arlian-

'Captain!' Jeice exclaimed. 'Language!'

'You do know,' Tien spoke up, fixing a stare on Ginyu, 'that we couldn't care less about any of this. You still attacked us. If you think explaining away-'

'Oh, no, no!' Ginyu raised his hands and opened them towards Tien as if to discourage him from his interpretation. 'I'm not trying to justify or explain anything! I don't need to justify anything to you scum; I just want to make it clear- to you all- that Zarbon is, perhaps, the most incompetent officer in the PTO. Not to mention the slimiest- and I've met a lot of disgusting officers in my time, hah!'

Ginyu turned to his men, faux-laughing, and to his credit, he did manage to get Recoome, Jeice, and Guldo awkwardly laughing with him. Once he turned back to Piccolo and the others, however, Jeice shot a hurt look to Recoome and Guldo. Closer to Ginyu and laid up at his feet, Zarbon barely stirred.

'And do you know why Zarbon is incompetent, and slimy, and every other quality seen in a bad officer?' Ginyu asked in a manner indicating that he didn't expect- or even want- anyone to answer him. 'It all comes down to cowardice. You see, Zarbon didn't have the guts to tell Lord Frieza the facts of the situation once he learned them. There are none and never were any Saiyans on Namek.

Behind him, Recoome furrowed his brows. 'The Captain didn't tell us that before,' he said, swinging his head to Jeice. 'I thought those two-' he indicated Tien and Yamcha with his eyes, '-were Saiyans?'

'I don't know what's true,' Jeice muttered back. 'Captain… like I said, he's not right…'

'Zarbon knew this!' Ginyu continued. 'From the moment he laid his eyes on the supposed Saiyans, and saw that they didn't have tails, he should have realized that he was here on a lie! He's a charlatan!'

'I… never knew…'

Ginyu, along with about eight other heads, peered down at Zarbon wriggling at Ginyu's feet. His head was propped inches off the ground in a desperate and painful attempt to give himself some dignity. 'I couldn't know… for sure…' Zarbon continued, sounding like his voice would give out any second. 'And… I would never lie… to Lord Frie- Frie- Frieza…'

With mocking care, Ginyu placed the sole of his boot on Zarbon's head and pushed down. 'Shush...' he tutted, rubbing Zarbon's face into the dirt. 'You had your chance with him. And, now, your failures become my burden, my boredom, and…' Ginyu's face twisted, and the veins across his head pulsed, '...my burnishing.'

'I think the word you're looking for is "beckoning", Captain,' Jeice called out.

'Thank you, Jeice,' Ginyu said, waving a backward hand to him. 'Yes- I need to clean up your mess now, Zarbon. A mess that includes wasted time and resources on the part of the PTO. A mess...' Ginyu blinked back sudden tears. '...a mess that killed one of my men. You have forced me to lead while bereaved. Which is why I am now standing over you, pushing your face into the mud. So!-' Ginyu reached down, grabbed Zarbon by his shoulders, and pulled him to his feet, and with a shove, thrust him towards Piccolo. 'Go on and finish your fight already! You can't disobey a direct order, can you?'

Zarbon stumbled forward a few steps and halted again. He swayed in place, tangled hair banging against his head, and broke into a coughing fit.

Just a few feet away now, Piccolo moved his gaze from Zarbon to Ginyu. 'So I did kill one of you, then. Thought I messed that up,' Piccolo said casually.

'He admits it!' Ginyu exclaimed, looking back to his men. They were, judging the expressions on their faces, facing a mix of emotions at the moment. 'The gall on this one! Has he never heard of our formidable force? How we descended to planets thought unconquerable and liquidated them in a fortnight! Ignorance!' Ginyu raised his voice, chiming like a clock, 'Ignorance of the gravest magnitude! To strike down one of our own without knowing what harm you've brought on yourself- ignorance of by the soon-to-be-deceased!'

Halfway through this diatribe, and apparently unnoticed by Ginyu, Piccolo's gaze hopped away to the other soldiers of the Ginyu Force. They made an odd team- what with their differing heights, colors, and body shapes. It was almost like they had been picked on those characteristics alone so to create an eye-catching bouquet of men. Of course, there was more to them than just appearance. Their strength was unknown, and consequently, he didn't know how much of a threat they might be to him.

'You, along with that insufferable traitor Zarbon, has stained us! Stained me!'

I'm certain that I can beat them on my own. Piccolo watched one of Ginyu's men make eye contact with him before glancing away. But it's another matter entirely if they attack me together, or try to help him… HIs gaze skipped back to Ginyu.

He wasn't looking at him. 'Yes!' Ginyu yelled, balling up a fist and holding it out in front of him like a weapon. 'Finish!'

Something flashed in the corner of Piccolo's vision. Hastily stepping back, the Namekian avoided a horizontal leg sweep aimed for his ankles. Mildly surprised, he noted Zarbon, wobbling in an attempt to stay upright, slowly retract his leg. From that one motion he was sorely out of breath.

'Are you trying to kill yourself?' Piccolo demanded, glaring at Zarbon. He had no concern for his enemies; he just felt angry that he was being forced to deal with such an asinine fighter. 'You know you can't beat me- and that would be true even if you weren't grievously injured!'

Huffing, Zarbon slowly worked his hands up from his thighs, then his sides, before lifting them clear of his body entirely. 'I… don't live unless I do this one thing,' he managed, wheezing from somewhere deep in his throat after every word or two. 'Unless I kill you. Your death ensures my survival… which is all I hope to get at this point. A few more hours, days.' He swayed again, but steadied himself, and said: 'So… fight and die to me. Or I'll fight and die to you.' Baring his teeth, Zarbon clenched his hands into fists and titled his entire body towards Piccolo like a rocket. 'Bring it on!'

0o0o0

All the other dragonballs they had collected so far were either given to him by open hands or resisted by greedy ones- but the dragonball he faced now was personless- it sat alone amidst nothing but grains of tan sand, a small, two-story beach house, and the sound of waves lapping against the land.

Mr. Popo cast their gaze to the building. The dull pink paint on its walls looked faded, and the screen door was detached from the wood at one of its hinges and listed out of the doorway. The place looked abandoned, and seemed to have been for a couple of years now.

There were many places like this on Earth. Places left behind by the wandering of people and the passage of time. Places like this always reminded Mr. Popo of the Lookout; both spoke of the promise of things to pass, no matter how far away in the future that might be. Perhaps, one day, Mr. Popo would ask Kami to let him travel the Earth to find a few more places like this.

Another day, though. With a bounce in their step, Mr. Popo stepped off of their carpet, bent over, and retrieved the five-star dragonball from its sandy bed. He wiped it off, and once back on his carpet, Mr. Popo placed it among its six siblings. Seven dragonballs, now. The quest, which had taken him far less time than usual thanks to the assistance he received from friendly faces, new and old, was done.

Smiling, Mr. Popo, their carpet, and the dragonballs then faded away from sight, blurring into the clear blue skies that framed the horizon in every direction.

A few seconds after this, a round shape beneath the sand began to stir. Two flippers, then a shell, and finally a head popped out of the ground, slow-moving and heavy-lidded. The turtle looked from the horizon to the spot where the dragonball had laid just a few minutes ago, closed its eyes, and began to resubmerge itself in the sand.

0o0o0

In one fluid motion, Piccolo stepped forward, ducked underneath one of Zarbon's slow-moving arms, and lightly tapped the soldier's chest. Zarbon fell back like a sack of bricks.

Nothing honorable in this. Piccolo watched Zarbon writhe on the ground- the man could barely do that. There's no pleasure, either. Just… embarrassing to him, and insulting to me.

'This is pitiful,' Piccolo announced, frowning at Ginyu. 'I can understand if you want to kill this man- but having him fight me is a waste of everyone's time.'

'And you can't say the same about wasting the life of my man, Burter!?' Ginyu shouted back. 'How you cut down a soldier in the prime of his life- for what? So you could die here, to me and the rest of my men, on this Frieza-forsaken planet!'

Piccolo glanced over to Nail and the others. None of them moved- but Piccolo saw the look in Nail's eyes. He understood.

'Nothing to say!? Nothing at all!?' Ginyu continued. 'Well, GOOD! SO! GO ON, AND!-'

Ginyu's borderline screams were cut off as Piccolo, zooming ahead like a bolt of lightning, collided into the purple alien. A great shockwave trampled over the area, and together, they tore a trench through and out of the village.

0o0o0

Beneath him and locked in his grip, Ginyu flailed in every direction as Piccolo used the purple's alien body to plow through the ground. They churned up dirt and crashed through buildings, turning hardened white walls into chunks and powder, until they found themselves in the plain surrounding the village. At this moment, Piccolo wrenched Ginyu out of the ground, slammed a fist against the bottom of Ginyu's jaw, and as the purple alien stretched out, Piccolo pivoted backward in the air and started to charge a point-blank blast of yellow ki in his right hand.

A sudden presence brushed against the back. Spinning, Piccolo blocked a strike from Recoome and used its momentum to surge further back and slam an elbow into GInyu's chest. Though turned away, he sensed Ginyu propel further away from him.

A split-second of hesitation set in among Piccolo. Jeice and Recoome were closing in on him, each one trying to separate him from their Captain. Piccolo doubted he'd be able to use another one of their attacks to lead into an attack on Ginyu, and he would undoubtedly lose a 3 on 1 fight. What he needed-

'NAIL!' Piccolo roared, catching Jeice's fist and twisting, throwing the red-skinned soldier over him as he tilted and blocked a strike from Recoome with his shins. 'I NEED!-'

A blur of red and tan- Recoome- rushed over Piccolo, inches away from his skin, with Nail in pursuit. 'FOCUS ON GINYU!' He roared, before flipping and smashing Jeice down to the ground and bursting up, slamming his arms into Recoome's midsection from above and sending him hurtling down as well.

Piccolo glanced down- he saw Jeice's impact with the ground form a small crater, with Recoome's about to do the same- and focused forward, putting on a burst of speed to catch up with his target. Ginyu, just then getting a bearing on his surroundings, was wide-eyed as Piccolo's fist slammed through his unguarded body and propelled him further away from the village.

0o0o0

Bez watched as, in rapid succession, five people screeched forward in his vision, chasing after one another as they blitzed through the abandoned village and out of sight. Their untrackable speed, as well as the sheer line of destruction they formed as they traveled beyond the village's limits, made Bez gape.

'One left.' Bez's attention snapped back to closer matters. Next to him, Tien and Yamcha were sizing up the last person left. 'Against three of us,' Tien continued, his voice lowering. 'You sense him pretty clearly, Yamcha?'

Yamcha nodded. 'His power is in our ballpark- which is concerning.' He looked over to Tien. 'They wouldn't have left him alone in a fight he couldn't win. He must have some trick hidden up his sleeve.'

'Only one way to find out,' Tien said, lowering himself to the ground. Pebbles began to kick away from the two human fighters. 'Yamcha, try to go around him- and Bez,' he said, whipping his head to the left and staring down Bez, 'Get into the air. Try and keep an eye on him and box him in.'

No discussion was needed- Bez nodded, as did Yamcha, and together, the three of them sighted Guldo and burst into action. Yamcha veered to the right, Bez blasted into the sky, and Tien charged straight forward.

It happened- it happened before anyone knew what was happening. At the same exact time, Bez was flung sideways in the air, Tien crashed into a Namekian building that wasn't there a moment before, and Yamcha was knocked back, gasping, onto the ground.

With a pulse of energy, the rubble atop of Tien exploded out, and the human stood and scanned his surroundings. 'What was that?!' he yelled out to Bez, who had just steadied himself in the air.

'I don't know!' Bez called down. 'It came out of nowhere!' He glanced away to some other spot on the ground. 'He's gone!' he added.

'What?' Tien shouted, twisting his head towards where Guldo had been, before a blow connected with his back. Tumbling, he rolled out of the rubble and fell into a ditch that, again, hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Farther behind him, Yamcha rocked inexplicably halfway through getting up as if he'd been smacked down to the ground, and above, Bez got flung even further away from the village.

At that instant, Guldo, panting, appeared in the village's central clearing. He quickly paled and swung his head around. 'Crap!' he yelled, running off in a seemingly random direction. 'Crap, crap, crap!'

On one knee, Yamcha spotted the retreating alien and rushed forward, aiming a fist at his back. But when just a few feet away from Guldo, the alien crossed into the denser mix of buildings surrounding the central clearing and vanished. Yamcha, expecting to deaden his momentum by hitting his opponent, tripped and fell into a sloppy roll. Once stopped, he spent a second frantically studying his surroundings before standing.

'He disappeared!' he broadly yelled after turning, unable to see Tien or Bez and unsure if they could even hear him.

'You almost got me, you foolish little man…' Yamcha's eyes widened and he spun, looking for a voice. No-one was behind him. 'You've gotten yourself into quite a mess,' the voice continued, this time from Yamcha's left. When he whipped around, however, like before, there was no-one there. 'A deadly one… for not a single soul who has challenged the Mighty Guldo has survived the encounter, and I doubt you will be the one to change that…'

The voice was now coming from every direction, and Yamcha, on reflex, called on his ki and kicked his blue-white aura into life around him. 'Where are you!?' He roared above his aura's pulsing. 'Show yourself!'

'...No…' the voice muttered. 'No, I don't think I'll do that.' Inexplicably, Yamcha felt a crushing pain, akin to someone punching him, blare on his right leg. He fell to one knee, gasping, and felt another phantom blow seize his back. Spasming, Yamcha fell face first to the ground, hands raking through the dirt.

'...D- damn it,' Yamcha forced through grit teeth, pushing himself inches off of the ground. Faintly, he could make out a thin black line on his leg. Blood welled out of it and trickled onto the blue grass he laid on. 'Damn it!'

0o0o0

The last inexplicable force that hit him, sending him careening across the sky, had nearly swatted Bez out of the air. It took all his willpower- and his power- to steady himself feet above a small lake that adjourned the village.

Parts of his body stung. Bez examined one of his arms, and saw red splotches typically seen from ki burns pattern it. How'd these get here? I didn't see anything. He flexed the arm, grimacing from the pain he elicited. And, yet… I'm injured. Whatever this is- Tien was right. This guy is dangerous.

As soon as he was sure he wasn't anything more than minorly damaged, Bez flew back into place above the village. When he parked himself high above the village's central clearing, he observed two things happen in rapid succession. He watched Tien get knocked back into the ditch, clutching one of his arms- and saw movement before and after this event. Thinking that he might have seen something on the edge of his vision, Bez pushed himself further into the air, angled himself to better face the village, and blinked.

Somehow, in that time, a massive thing of rock, shaped into a pointed pillar, had appeared out of nowhere and nothing below him- and was screaming towards him like an arrow. Bez had no time to do anything except desperately lurch himself to the side in the hope that he would avoid it. He was mostly successful.

Rock gashed into his side, flipping him around in the air and sending streaks of blood in the air. Pain flooded Bez's system and random static crowded his vision. His senses scattered, he, alongside the pillar, plummeted to the earth, and they landed just a few feet away from each other. The pillar, piercing deep, staked itself in the ground with a slant.

Bez took a moment to steady his breath while his senses returned to him. Gritting his teeth, he moved his right arm to his gaping wound, pressed down on it, and sat up to look at it. To his relief, it was deep but thin, and by tearing off a section of his jumpsuit from the bottom of his legs, he was able to stuff it and largely stop the bleeding.

He cautiously moved the hand away from his side. Caring about the wound's (likely) future chance of being infected and cumulative blood loss later on was not his immediate concern. Standing, he spotted Tien down in that same ditch he had seemingly been trapped in for the past few minutes and helped him up.

Once standing, Bez was able to see the many nascent bruises spreading across Tien's body. His face must have conveyed his confusion, because Tien's gaze was locked on him. 'Somehow, even though we can't track him moving at all,' Tien growled, 'he's hitting us. Hard.' He glanced down at the wound in Bez's side. 'He's… going to kill us at this rate.'

Bez swept his gaze towards the buildings- the white, eerie structures that surrounded the clearing were ominous without a single person living in them. Though...

'Where's he even coming from?' Tien muttered at his side.

Two thoughts connected in Bez's minds. 'He's hiding in the houses between attacks,' Bez uttered. 'That's it.'

'We need to get rid of them, then.' Tien looked towards the sky. 'I… I think I have-'

An explosion, followed by a wall of air and the ground shaking underneath their feet, ruptured from deeper within the village. Detritus rushed up and sat in the air, casting shadows over that entire side of the battle.

Tien's eyes tracked from the sky to the ground. 'Nevermind,' he said. 'Yamcha might have beat us to it.' Together, they dashed off into the shadows.

0o0o0

Even as he prepared his attack, Nail saw Piccolo pursue Ginyu from the area. He even spent a crucial second turning his head in their direction to confirm this.

It was a calculated risk. When he turned back to Jeice and Recoome several yards below him, each struggling to worm themselves out of a shared crater, he saw that they were totally unprepared for another attack. But he wanted to make sure Piccolo and Ginyu had enough time to get away so they wouldn't be caught up in his next attack. Piccolo needed space for his fight, and Nail needed space for his own, after all.

Energy pressed against both his palms. With a rare, small smirk on his face, Nail drew both his hands above his head, tilted, and thrust them together towards the PTO soldiers.

The ensuing white-pink blast, large enough to form a crater big enough to take away the outer edge of the village on this side of it, enveloped Jeice and Recoome's form and blew Nail higher up into the sky with its pure force. Nearby trees flattened to the ground, sometimes at the expense of some village buildings, and grass blades of every shape and size were sheared from the surrounding land and curled up and back, filling the entire area with tiny blue specs.

They were an annoyance to Nail. With a wave of his hand, a wave of ki rode forth and cleared a path down to the center of the blast's detonation. Just before reaching that point, however, the ki stopped and broke apart horizontally.

Recoome, his massive arms held over him like great beams of rock, stood like a statue in the middle of the crater. After a second, Jeice stepped out from behind the giant's protective stature, glaring up at Nail. They were both, ignoring some minor scuffs and scrapes in their armor, unharmed.

'You're a quick one, aren't you?' Jeice called out as Nail lowered himself closer to the ground. 'Seizing the initiative after jumping us and getting us all tangled up. Very smart. But Recoome here is made out of stronger stuff than some planets, mate. And no-one gets the jump on a Ginyu Force member, let alone two, more than twice.'

Nail frowned down at them. 'An… odd place to draw the line. It's okay for me to "jump you" once or twice, but not three times?'

The posture of the PTO soldiers' shifted- Recoome lowered his guard, while Jeice stood up taller- and Nail, his eyes flicking between the two, reminded himself of his plan.

'Jump us once, shame on you,' Jeice said, moving further away from Recoome.

'Jump us twice, shame on us,' Recoome continued, moving towards the other edge of the crater.

'But jump us thrice- that's shame on the Captain-' Jeice paused, both verbally and physically, filling the air with tension. 'And no-one shames the Captain.'

No more than a second passed after Jeice finished did the three figures blur away from their positions. A series of impacts sounded in the air before Nail, arms locked in a cross-block, absorbed a blow from one of Recoome's massive fists and skidded backward in the air. The Namekian glanced over to his right and spotted Jeice rushing through the air to his right to flank him. Smirking, Nail's outline blurred away.

A green leg smashed against Jeice's chest in the next instant, producing a high-pitched braahm that threw red-skinned soldier several feet back through the air. While Jeice recovered, Nail shifted to his right and throttled a hand bearing a ball of pink ki. Once braced, he spun, aimed it at a charging Recoome with leveled arms, and fired.

The giant was caught unprepared as the blast smashed into him and detonated, spilling pink light across and past his body. Nail followed this up by swinging his attention back towards Jeice, who had just regained his bearings, and engaging him in a quick exchange. After a few skidding blows, Nail swung underneath a clumsy punch and rammed his shoulder into Jeice's gut. As a reward for his efforts, he heard a satisfying craaaack sound from Jeice's armor, and his strike launched the soldier higher up into the air.

Nail wrenched his gaze from Jeice and spotted a wide fist zooming for his head. With admirable grace, he grabbed the limb, roped around it like a bar, pressed his feet to Recoome's shoulders, and exploded off of the man, using the man as a gigantic springboard. For a parting gift, as he twisted away, he threw another blast of ki down at Recoome and blanketed him with another explosion of pink ki.

A few more strikes! Mid-flight, Nail refocused himself and looked further ahead to Jeice, who was still being carried by the force of Nail's last blow. Pushing himself to his limit, Nail wrapped himself in his white aura and moved even faster through the sky. A few more strikes like that is all I need to even this!

As he closed in, Jeice's body became more refined, and Nail could see the scuffed and uneven sheen of his cracked armor, the odd white V resting against the orange circle on his chestplate, and his arm bent back at an odd angle-

Nail had the breath knocked out of him as that arm lurched forward and rammed into his gut, finding its mark in the middle of his open midriff. His momentum came to a halt and reversed, as Jeice sank a number of additional blows into Nail's body. By the time the red-skinned soldier was done, Nail was actively flying away to avoid another strike from Jeice.

Who, of course, was the wrong person to avoid. Nail felt like his entire body was snapped in two as Recoome, tendons bunching under his skin, soared through the air from below and cheered: 'RECOOME KICK!'

The giant punted him into the green sky above them as if he was a ball. Nail had no pretense of control as the strike sent him, spinning madly, far higher up than he would have liked.

Not to mention the pain. The kick spread pure agony through his blood, sinking into his muscles and bones and souring them. Once stationary again and with his vision clear of spinning, Nail panted and oriented himself downward. He held off on using his regeneration so as to not waste his energy on healing excruciating, but insignificant damage.

Below, Jeice and Recoome had regrouped and floated side-by-side. Both of them looked ready to go another round. But just before Recoome charged up at Nail, Jeice held up a hand. 'Recoome, hold on. Did you notice what he was doing before?'

Even though he was far up in the sky, Nail, like any other Namekian, had exceptional hearing. And he spat a particularly bad Namekian curse once he realized what Jeice was broaching.

Recoome, flattening his features, turned to Jeice. 'What's that?'

'He was keeping us apart. Using different attacks for each of us. He charged me and pelted you with energy attacks.'

'He was, huh? Doing that to-'

'Play to our weaknesses,' Jeice concluded, smiling. 'And we just figured out his little ruse. He's buggered. Scouter tells me we've got a small edge on him, even if either of us was fighting him alone.'

Above them, Nail's cursing gave way to silence. He charged ki attacks in both hands.

The next confrontation, when it came just a few seconds later, ended up where everybody thought it would- Nail, pinned down by Jeice's long-distance energy harassment, was bottled into a constant fist-fight with Recoome. With every freakish blow that crashed into his guard, and with every blast from Jeice that he was forced to avoid by rushing back towards Recoome, Nail felt a little bit more of his energy diminish without any proportionate decrease for his opponents. He was lucky to have scored a few early blows that gave him an early lead on damage- but if things didn't change soon, and fast, he would be joining his deceased kin decades earlier than he had hoped.

0o0o0

Piccolo's pursuit of Ginyu, aided by his initial surprise, continued to deliver blow-after-blow against the unprepared alien. Ginyu's body seemed to meld around Piccolo's blows, as he pushed both his speed and his strength further and further than what he had used previously. He was confident that, as he came closer and closer to where he felt his maximum was, his strikes became more assured and decisive.

Ginyu certainly didn't give him any resistance. Since receiving the first blow, the Captain of the Ginyu Force had been pummeled by Piccolo across plains, plateaus, lakes, and oceans, at each stage utterly incapable of defending himself. This journey gave Piccolo more than enough time to decide what he wanted to do- and when he reached an abrupt cliffside, he made his move.

He bombarded Ginyu with blows up until his last strike- after holding back for a second, he whipped his leg across Ginyu's body, sinking his leg into his side and spinning him around so that he crashed into the cliffside face-first. The strength behind his blow created a crater ten times as wide as Ginyu's length.

At the same time, Piccolo turned sideways, faced Ginyu with the right side of his body, and extended the pointer finger from his right hand. With a blip of ki at its tip, Piccolo rapidly traced the finger through the air across a single vertical plane like a paintbrush, leaving behind in its wake a thin strand of yellow. Another idea he, regrettably, had to credit to his time spent at King Kai's. Piccolo had seen very little of King Kai's instruction for whatever move he had intended to teach them before running out of time, but he remembered the gist of it- call on the world's ambient energy in all living things and focus it into a single strike. Simple in concept, hard in execution, as King Kai had described it.

He planned to do nothing of the sort now, nor did he have any desire to do so in the future, but he had remembered the notion of a construct involved with collecting that ambient ki in the first place. The collected ki had to be gathered far enough away from the user so as to not interfere with the crucial energies of the body, spirit, and soul. Piccolo never learned how to use this technique (nor, if he remembered correctly, had Krillin), but he had practiced manipulating his ki outside of his body in preparation.

He finished threading the air with his finger. In front of him, a symmetrical web of yellow lines filled the space between himself and Ginyu, glowing with the telltale strength of imbued ki. Thin arcs jumped between individual lines- which annoyed Piccolo, because this signified that his control over the technique wasn't quite perfect yet.

He shrugged it lifted his traced finger parallel to the glistening, 2-D web. Something to improve on once this is done.

No dollop of ki was left on his finger's tip, and the web of ki, up until this point fixed, glowed with growing intensity. Without bending it at any place except where it connected to his hand, Piccolo swung down his finger to point at Ginyu like a monarch condemning someone to die.

'Lightfall.'

The lines, as if unshackled from occupying a single plain, rushed towards Ginyu, forming a 3-D mass of stranded light. From each line that stretched out, a number of smaller blasts budded off, spun towards Ginyu, and exploded. The purple alien had been stuck in the rock up until this point- now, he was kept there by the increasing stream of tiny energy blasts striking him.

Piccolo, one hand held behind his back and one lifted, was anything but the picture of calm he projected- to control as many blasts that were being launched, he had to exercise as much focus as possible over them to ensure a steady, increasing stream of blasts that grew stronger as the attack went on. Still, facing the storm of energy that smothered Ginyu and threw light, energy, and wind in every possible direction, Piccolo appeared to be the only sure thing amidst the growing chaos that ate more and more of the cliffside. His gi may have been tugged and pushed by the wind, but he was not.

It ended, as Piccolo planned, at full strength- the lines of light and the blasts they spawned grew to a maddening, wracking, incomprehensible peak, radiating waves of light and energy from the central target across the cliffside, and then gave out. Just as quickly as the attack had powered up to its full destructive capacity, it ceased.

Piccolo immediately relaxed his posture. Sweat would have been staining his gi if it weren't for the residual heat of the attack evaporating it off his skin. He stood there, still unmoving, and waited.

He appeared first as shadow, then as a shape. Piccolo expected the man to be severely damaged, if not unable to fight. But when Ginyu finally emerged, smoke wrapped around him like thick rolls of cloth, his throat closed up and choked him with his arrogance.

Not a single scratch covered Ginyu's body. There was nothing left of his white armor, and more of his black jumpsuit was gone than present, and yet, Piccolo could see no actual damage. Tensing, he took in a deep breath and held it in his lungs.

Ginyu, with the air of a god, fully separated himself from the cliffside, turned, and floated closer to Piccolo. The Namekian noted that Ginyu's scouter, partially blocked from sight by the purple's alien left hand, was intact. 'You look shocked,' he noted in a calm voice. 'Are you shocked?'

'... I won't deny it,' Piccolo said finally. 'I knocked you across what felt like half the planet- and for what? I was wrong to think this fight would be easy.'

Ginyu held his gaze on Piccolo, seemingly thinking on what Piccolo had said last. 'My power level was,' he said, changing topics, 'the last time it was measured, clocked around 120,000. Does that number mean anything to you?'

'Nothing at all,' Piccolo retorted. 'I couldn't care less, to be honest.' Piccolo's mouth arched, and he leaned into his bravado- ignoring how much dread he felt beneath the veneer. 'Your man, Burter, began to talk about power levels once he started losing.'

Ginyu laughed- Or Piccolo thought it was a laugh, judging by Ginyu's face and not by the stunted sound he vocalized. 'That sounds like something Burter would do. But the difference between myself and Burter-' Ginyu's tone darkened, '-who you cut down, brutally, shaming me-, and his tone shifted right back, '-is that I do not use power levels to determine my own worth. Burter would always use them to justify his impressive speed, at some points even claiming to be the "Fastest in the Universe", or some hogwash like that.' Ginyu paused, and shook his head as if amused. 'Putting aside his childish, inaccurate, and now defunct views, he was nonetheless fooled by the security power levels gave him. But I recognize their pitfalls and, inversely, their more effective aim- why use something to build yourself up when instead you can use it to tear someone down?'

Piccolo, doing his best to ignore the sweat rolling down the back of his neck, had an idea of where Ginyu was going, but still, he asked: 'And what, exactly, does tearing someone down look like?'

'I'll tell you. My scouter, as I'm sure you've guessed, in addition to measuring my own, also measures the power level of others. And you, my green, disrespectful pest, have a power level of 55,000. So, needless to say-' Ginyu tipped his head back, and looked at Piccolo down the front of his face, '-120,000 outclasses 55,000 by a wide margin.'

It could have been true. But Piccolo was acquainted with bluffing as a tactic in fights, and so far, though Ginyu has matched him blow-for-blow, he'd be able to keep up with him- even if his last attack had done seemingly nothing. I'm still warming up... without a doubt. I thought I was dead once before- and I came back stronger.

'I have a policy of not believing an opponent's words until they've been proven by action,' Piccolo declared. 'So,' he growled, pushing his back foot further behind him in the air and raising his guard,' Come-'

PHOOOOOM. A shockwave, preceded by a great rush of wind, buffeted Piccolo, throwing him back and forcing him to throw up his guard.

He was lucky, because a force crashed against it a split-second later.

From in between the cracks of his guard- and just beneath where a horn had stabbed straight through one of his arms, sending a mist of purple blood into the air- Ginyu half-smiled, half-glared at him. 'You should listen when I speak. My words are action!'


A/N: Alright! Things are heating up! If you're enjoying this fic, make sure to follow, favorite, write a review (even if it's only a few words), ding that bell, smash that subscribe button- you know, the usual!

Also! To give a glimpse of what's going on with this fic behind the scenes; I recently had a big-think-day and planned out, more or less, the specifics of this arc's end and the broad outline of the next. I am… extremely excited to show you what I've got planned. After this arc and the next concludes, this story is really going to hit on some long-burning plotlines… and I could not be more excited to write them. Probably the most excited I've ever been to write for this story yet. So get pumped! I certainly am.

More also! 2-year anniversary of this fic came and went! Guess it's old enough now to string together simple sentences! More seriously, when/if I ever have a reason to put out a special chapter to commemorate something like this, it would most likely be published as a separate "one-shot" fic for this story, unless the special chapter was intimately connected to the fic's center plot. You may or may not have some ideas as to what hypothetical chapter would receive this treatment...

(one more edit! This chapter pushed this story above the 500k mark! Half a million words! crazy!).

Reviews:

Rowan Citrian: Dunno how humans are going to keep up with Piccolo [ ;) ]. They've definitely been thinking about it, though.

Dunno what's going to happen with Zarbon [ ;) ].

Legendary-mech: Nice to see you again, Legend! And thanks a ton for all the reviews. To address your question about the dragonballs because the others are answered by the text; to be honest, I struggled a bit with using Namek's dragonballs across in a believable way in order to set up the arc ending that I wanted. Using them in a totally rational way would defuse a lot of the tension the story had been building up in the way I'd constructed it, so I had to wring out some slightly suboptimal wishes. I tried to get there primarily by setting up the Namekians as a difficult negotiating partner; what with their stubbornness to leave their planet to save their butts, their desire to hold onto the wishes initially to keep them as an ace in the hole, etc.

In terms of them not knowing how strong Piccolo might be, that's a fair point. They were really rolling the dice with him. But, in the scene you're describing in Chapter 56, the Namekians also needed to give their consent. Moori had an interest in meeting Piccolo, so he agreed to the wish to revive him and bring him to Namek. I can't really get into why Moori had an interest in talking to Piccolo at this point, but bear in mind that that reason is going to be given soon.

I'll totally own up that the way I went wasn't the best it could have been, but, hopefully, the arc's ending will justify the set-up. Besides; since when in canon did everyone always make the best possible wish at every juncture, of if they did, how much deliberation was needed to get there ;)?

TienFan99: Okay- this is pretty meaty! I like this! Thank you! And don't feel the need to write out long reviews if they're taxing! Whatever you can jot down works!

I see what you mean about the tone set by the first 10-odd chapters. The story shifted between a dragonball-esque feel and some dark moments pretty frequently. Same goes for the convenient comic scenes. Your feedback has me thinking that, if I ever did a rewrite of the first couple chapters, I would alter the pulse of the comedy (to where it lacks in the beginning, builds towards the end, and then levels off again as the confrontation with Kakarot looms) and lean less into edginess with Kakarot. I also think a lot can be achieved if, in those scenes, Kakarot is depicted with a more distant, detached angle so as to give his chunk of the story a bit more wiggle room for interpretation- and considering that my characterization of him was fairly simple in the first place in those chapters, there wouldn't be much lost by doing that. That, coupled with some tuning of the characters and set pieces would probably go a long way to prettying up the front side of this fic.

Cityracer: Another meaty review! Thank you! And, as I said to TienFan99 above you, don't push yourself to write a long review if it's taxing! A few lines will do!

I had the idea for the last chapter that panning back to the Earth while the dragonballs were being hunted down would be a good way to ease everyone over there back into the story. We can't be on Namek forever, after all… or can we?

Mai, Shu, and Pilaf, too, were characters I've been thinking of introducing back into the story for a while. I've got some ideas, especially considering that I totally skipped over their arc in dragonball.

The stuff with Kami/Nail is, as you've guessed, going to be impactful… but, dang, that's still a couple of chapters off. Gotta keep my mouth shut. But the accidental merge- well, was it accidental? Thinking emoji?

I'm glad you liked the Ginyu scene. I really tried to go for a weird mix of humor and grief. I felt it very Ginyu Force for everyone to crowd around a grieving Ginyu and then make a show of who can come closest to matching how upset he is.

I'm sure there's a good Ginyu Force fic out there. I've actually thought of making a fic like that before!

Zarbon's hanging around, still, for sure…

See what I said to TienFan99 above- also, yeah, I think fixing up those character actions and capabilities would be better. I definitely depicted Rayne as a tad bit too competent in the beginning before I got a firmer handle on who she was as a character. Other reviewers have also pointed out how everyone acts an adult earlier in the story when they're 12, 13, 14. I don't think at that point as a writer I knew how to write non-perfect characters who don't make the right decision in every situation. If I ever have to do a redo of the first couple chapters, I'll have to write out everyone's ages on a sheet of paper and glance at it occasionally to remind myself of how young everyone is.

But I think you hit something with Master Roshi. Introducing such a specific personality and set of quirks- where he goes so far as to dress up at a tournament to push his students to train harder- helped me write more "flawed", or at least, "edged" characters.

I answered your question about other fics, so: review done!

TheJayANater: TheJayANater did me a great service by bringing to my attention that I had mistakenly updated Chapter 43 with Chapter 55. So, that was fixed. Give 'em a hand! I really hope you were the only person to suffer that confusion.

Anonymous: Oh man… Naruto has such a wacky and strange universe packed with so many characters that I think managing a story of that breadth would be too much for me to handle… but your compliment for this fic was very kind. I try my best to make it the best!