Chapter 2
By now he was sure the universe hated him.
They had come so far, braved the vast expanse of space to come here to Namek where they had a chance to right everything that had gone wrong on Earth, bring back those they had lost. And then, when they had barely set foot on the planet who arrives there? Of course. Vegeta.
Krillin remembered the sinking feeling in his stomach all too well as they watched the Saiyan's spaceship enter the atmosphere and go down in a distance. The frustration, the anger, the guilt.
The mission to Namek had been his idea, his chance to bring back Yamcha and the others, even Piccolo whom he didn't particularly miss but whose death had meant devastating consequences for them nevertheless. He had told the others this wouldn't be dangerous, had talked Bulma into coming along, an inventor with no martial arts training, and had even brought Gohan, a five-year-old child. Now, granted, Gohan had already fought alongside him against Vegeta back on Earth and as a half-Saiyan was much tougher than your average child. But he was still a kid and the son of his best friend and leading him into danger like this made Krillin feel even more miserable.
Still, he was grateful to have Gohan, selfish as the feeling might be. The boy was bright, friendly, and very brave. Maybe a bit too brave for Krillin's taste considering his desire to protect a Namekian kid almost got all of them killed, but then again that had turned out for the best in the end. In fact, it had meant they could learn about Grand Elder and get the final Dragon Ball, so they had another chance to prevent the apocalypse.
He smiled at the alien child, Dende, flying next to him, but got no reaction.
Of course not, he scolded himself. While Dende could fly he was far less trained in controlling his ki and so this whole ordeal had to be quite draining for him. Besides, he had just barely escaped the slaughter of his village as the sole survivor and had learned about the deaths of the residents of another village shortly thereafter. That would make it hard to remain cheerful for anyone.
Not for the first time, Krillin wondered how Vegeta was connected to those other aliens who had slaughtered Dende's village. While they were wearing the same type of armor they looked distinctly not Saiyan. Were they allies of Vegeta's? That he alerted about the existence of Dragon Balls on Namek after Krillin didn't stop him on Earth? Had Krillin even more lives on his conscience than Vegeta's victims?
He sighed. But why wasn't he with those supposed comrades and seemed to attack villages on his own? It all made no sense to Krillin. Maybe Vegeta was ... was ...
"He's coming our way!" Krillin shrieked and grabbed for Dende's arm. "Vegeta! He discovered us and is heading in our direction! We have to hide! Now!"
They dove down towards the ground, a tranquil looking archipelago. Unfortunately, none of the small islands had much to offer when it came to caves and their vegetation was scarce even for Namekian standards. Krillin picked the largest island where the shore fell towards the water as a sheer cliff face and took cover amongst the rocks along with the trembling child.
He had guessed that Vegeta had learned to sense ki and this confirmed his suspicion. Their flying must have set off enough energy for the Saiyan to detect and Vegeta's own ki was burning brightly as Krillin felt him come closer.
"Calm," he whispered towards Dende. "You need to breathe evenly. Don't let him feel we're here." But even as he said it he knew it was hopeless. Masking one's ki took a lot of training and he couldn't expect Dende to accomplish something so complex in a matter of minutes.
And then he felt something else. Another ki was out there, someone of similar strength to Vegeta. Before he even had time to wonder who this might be, he sensed Vegeta's ki veer off towards the other being.
Dende kept close to him, sounding as if he was on the verge of a panic attack. Krillin crouched next to him and placed both hands on the Namekian's shoulders. "Dende, it's okay. He went another way. We can get out of this. Maybe we can hide and wait until they forget about us."
He squinted at the horizon where both kis were speeding towards each other. Taking his own advice about staying calm was considerably harder when you didn't have someone else who confidently told you what to do and that everything would turn out alright.
Then the horizon erupted in fire. Like another sunrise energy flared up, ripping through mountains and even though they were too far away to make out details they could hear the rumble and felt the ground shaking beneath their feet.
Krillin gasped. Whoever the owner of the second ki was it had a distinctly evil feel to it and he had no desire to meet any of the two opponents. Because now it was clear to him that Vegeta was fighting. Probably even against one of the other invaders although he didn't know why. Well, it wasn't all that surprising that Vegeta had no friends even among other evil folk.
But be that as it may, while he hoped that maybe the two would kill each other he wasn't counting on it. The universe had proven once too often he'd better rely on his own wits than expect too many favors.
"Dende, hold on to me," he said putting an arm around the boy's waist. "We'll make a run for it while the bad guys are busy among themselves. I'll fly at top speed and you can rest a bit."
He didn't wait for Dende's nod and launched them back into the air. They had to make it to the Grand Elder before one of the combatants came looking for them.
Far behind them, explosions were tearing the landscape apart, but Krillin no longer looked back. Gritting his teeth he put all his strength into speed and fled.
