Chapter 6
They almost made it.
At first, things had been going so smoothly. They had reached Bulma in next to no time and left again with the Dragon Ball before she even registered Vegeta was with them. Or at least, Krillin assumed she didn't notice, but he had so grown used to tuning out her nagging he didn't pay much attention to what she was complaining about.
Vegeta had led them to his own hideout where the remaining five Dragon Balls were waiting for them. Unfortunately, that was also the moment the Ginyu Force arrived and things went from bad to worse.
They weren't exactly what Krillin had expected Freeza's elite to be, with all their posturing and the nonchalant way they treated the whole endeavor. Still, given the way they talked to Vegeta, how they mocked him and called him "little Veggie" with apparently not a worry about how he might pay them back, Krillin assumed they had a lot of power to back them up.
In a way they reminded him of the other monks back at Orin temple where he grew up before running away to become Muten Roshi's student. At least as far as mocking was concerned. Of course, his former brothers never were so eager to murder him they played rock paper scissors for that privilege, but the feeling of helplessness in the face of ridicule, of being underestimated and treated as if he was worthless, was all too familiar.
Krillin frowned at the thought. Vegeta was really the last person he wanted to find similarities to.
He shifted his focus on the opponent who had "won" the privilege of killing him and Gohan. It was the shortest among the Ginyu Force, a squat, four-eyed alien whose skin had the color of murky swamp water. They called him Guldo and he seemed to be the most emotional about hating Vegeta.
A pity that they wouldn't be able to leave them to settle their differences on their own, but at least Guldo didn't seem particularly strong. On the other hand, he had been able to steal a Dragon Ball right out of Krillin's grasp and Vegeta had hinted he might have done that by controlling time. That was worrying enough but he wanted to face off against the others even less. He hadn't seen them fight yet, only experienced the blue-skinned one demonstrate extraordinary speed as he took Vegeta's Dragon Ball, and yet Krillin could feel all too well how much they were out of his league.
Their leader, Ginyu, had left, but even that was no relief, as he had taken all the Dragon Balls with him to get Freeza the immortality the tyrant so desired.
Krillin straightened himself and stared at Guldo, trying to come up with a strategy when Vegeta motioned for him to come closer and then leaned over.
"Be careful with Guldo," he instructed Krillin in hushed tones. "He isn't all that strong physically, but he has strange powers. You'd better not attack him directly."
Krillin nodded and looked at their opponents nervously. The Ginyus had obviously noticed them talking, but seemed more amused than bothered.
Vegeta kept his eyes on them as well, but for a moment he glanced at Krillin as if struggling with another thought. "Is Kakarot really not on the planet?"
Krillin raised an eyebrow. Did Vegeta think they had been lying about that? Was he hoping for or fearing Goku's presence? Given that Goku had vowed to beat Vegeta should he ever come back to Earth he wasn't sure how the Saiyan felt about it.
"He isn't," Krillin finally replied truthfully. "But we heard he is on his way and close."
Vegeta acknowledged his reply with a grunt. "As much as I hate that insufferable fool, we could really use another ally."
Fair enough.
Krillin swallowed all further remarks and with a glance at Gohan they moved forward in unison. For a moment he felt rather vulnerable about turning his back towards Vegeta, but then he kicked himself into focusing solely on Guldo. Deal with the immediate threat and worry about any betrayals later, he reminded himself.
Then the fight was on.
It went quite well for a while. As Vegeta said, Guldo wasn't all that strong and if it weren't for his special powers he probably would never have been accepted as a member of the Ginyu Force.
Most of the time they even had him on the back foot. Krillin and Gohan kept chasing him and Guldo was forced to freeze time so he could escape their attacks. But as he could only freeze time for as long as he held his breath he never managed to get far enough away to position himself for a counter-attack.
Then they cornered him and Krillin felt pride about their impending win as him and Gohan rushed forward to strike the decisive blow. Only to have his pride crumble as he realized he couldn't land a blow. Nor fire off a ki bolt. Nor move.
In fact, both he and Gohan were floating on the spot, unable to do much other than breathe and feel embarrassed.
"I told you not to attack him directly!", Vegeta scolded them from somewhere below and Krillin didn't know whether to feel more annoyed with himself for getting too cocky or with the Saiyan for nagging instead of helping.
He felt like shouting back that Vegeta had failed to tell them about Guldo being able to not only stop time but also people's movements but that comeback would have to wait until Guldo released them. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a time limit or prerequisite like holding your breath for this technique.
He kept trying to break free when the first rock hit his arm, following by others impacting his belly, his face, and basically the rest of him. He couldn't turn his head to see whether Guldo had thrown anything at them but the sheer amount of rocks suggested the alien was probably using his mind powers for this.
Great!
He wasn't too worried about the damage these would do although the impacts definitely hurt and not being able to evade or block made even these rocks and lumps of dirt more than bothersome. But it wasn't anything he or Gohan couldn't handle.
Then the hail stopped and a moment later Guldo appeared hovering in his field of vision. He grinned manically and floated closer to Krillin. "So, you thought you could mock me? Win against me?" He grabbed the collar of Krillin's suit and punched him in the face. "I'll show you. I'll repay you for all that humiliation."
With that he punched him again. And again. And kicked him. Guldo started counting his punches and kicks and when he was past thirty he switched his attention to Gohan, giving him the same treatment and mocking them both.
Krillin found breathing to be hard; blood trickled down from his split lip and a cut above one eyebrow. He blinked the blood away and clenched his teeth. He had to get away, break free, and help Gohan!
But he couldn't even help himself.
Desperately, he reached inside himself, focused on his ki and in his mind pictured himself soaring upwards, but to no avail.
"Get on with the killing, Guldo," came the voice of one of the other Ginyu Force members from outside of Krillin's view. "We haven't got all day and I want to get around to play with little Veggie."
Guldo grumbled a bit but he nevertheless agreed and flew off. Krillin wondered whether the little guy wanted to maybe gather more momentum so that his strikes would do more damage than just hurt a little. But then Guldo telepathically moved an uprooted tree towards them, clearly wanting them to see what he was planning to do. He freed the tree from roots and branches and broke off the top, creating a surprisingly pointy large skewer.
Krillin felt an icy dread in his stomach. This would be a really lousy way to die.
He renewed his efforts to break free, but all he got was laughter from Guldo who had landed again so he could put all his focus on making sure his victims stayed put. If only Krillin could break his concentration, distract him somehow maybe shout math problems at him or something like that but he couldn't even open his mouth and all the sounds he was capable of were frantic groaning.
If only Goku was here! But that was wishful thinking, he knew. Krillin had come all this way to die here.
He saw the oversized skewer move towards him and screamed inwardly. Dodge! Dodge now!
And then he was suddenly free and all the ki he had gathered catapulted him and Gohan upwards. The tree hurtled past them and got slower and slower until it tumbled to the ground.
In wonder, Krillin peered down to see what had happened. He saw Guldo's body toppled over and not too far away the alien's severed head lying at Vegeta's feet.
Krillin's mind was a jumble of thoughts as he landed a few steps away from Vegeta. Did he really owe his life to the Saiyan? Or did Guldo suffer a sudden fortunate accident? He couldn't say which scenario he found less likely.
Bizarrely, Guldo's head was still talking. "You cheating bastard! The fight was between me and these two earthlings. You had no right to interfere, Vegeta!"
The Saiyan laughed. "I don't remember agreeing to those terms. But you always were a sore loser, Guldo."
With that he raised a hand and fired a quick ki blast right into Guldo's face, ending that conversation and Guldo's life in an almost nonchalant way.
Krillin swallowed and came closer. "Thank you for-"
"I didn't do that to save you two pathetic fools," Vegeta interrupted him. "I saw a chance to get rid of Guldo and I took it. That's all."
Krillin stared at him for a second and blinked slowly. Why was Vegeta so eager not to do anything to get along with them? Why did he have to make you feel foolish for being grateful that someone saved your life? Oh, right, because he was evil and they were only working together out of necessity.
Gritting his teeth Krillin turned towards Gohan. The kid looked a bit battered but seemed to have taken no serious damage. Instead, there was a look of wonder as he stared at Vegeta. Krillin was about to tell him not to bother with thanking the Saiyan when the other Ginyu Force members noticed what had happened.
"Oh great, they got Guldo. That's going to ruin all our poses."
"Yeah, where do we get someone else who has the right size for that?"
Leave it to Vegeta's former comrades to be just as despicable as him. Still, they had more pressing problems right now as the one who had "won" the right to take on Vegeta stepped forward - a red-haired giant who called himself Recoome.
Out of all the Ginyu Force members he looked the least alien, but that made him no less threatening. He was of massive stature and taller than even Goku. Next to him Vegeta looked almost like a child - slim and frail.
But Krillin had seen Vegeta fight before, had seen him shake off blows that would have killed others and deal out damage that belied his short stature.
He had been on the receiving end of getting underestimated himself and knew all too well judging by looks was a bad idea.
And so he stepped aside and waited next to Gohan as Vegeta got into a battle posture and walked towards his opponent, his face grim and his jaw set.
For as little love as he held towards the Saiyan, for the first time he hoped Vegeta would win.
AN: Another big thanks to everyone who is still reading this and especially to those who faved, followed, and commented. It means a lot to me.
