The air was still within the hollow stone hut. No noise could be heard inside save for the far-off, muffled roars of the wild beasts of Namek. Inside the hut, Saonel sat on a small wooden chair, his long talons anxiously fiddling with a pebble, sweat coating his dark green brow. His antennae flicked and twitched with uncertainty. He knew deep down what was coming to him, and he feared it deeply.

Finally, he took a deep breath and carefully exited his hut. As he trudged down the dirt path, he was met with the scents of ceremonial candles and the smoke of roaring fires, the chants of fellow Namekians completing their daily prayers, work songs and rituals. The sounds were typical for him, but on this day, they were quieter, more reserved and less confident; the voices of many men and children were missing from the familiar amalgamation of dances and hymns. Saonel finally looked up from the path to witness scores of empty huts just like his. As for the ones that were occupied, he could see the Namekians inside glaring at him, like he had just committed some sort of unspeakable crime. The anxious warrior flicked his head away from the swarm of blank faces riddled with suspicion. Shaking himself out of his frightened stupor, he continued his trek.

As he walked, the distance between him and the village grew and grew. He was now on the apex of a grassy hill, bundles of blue trees and a lake being the only visible thing for miles around him. Again he stopped, but not due to his own volition.

The lake! Oh, how I clamor to bathe in it! Let me go, let me go!

I used to love to run around in the grass, and I will once more when I am freed from this incompetent beast.

Oh, please be merciful to Saonel! He's been under a lot of stress these past few days, and he tried his best…

"Trying his best" would've gotten our entire Universe annihilated!

"ENOUGH!" Saonel angrily shouted, quelling the voices inside him before their discussion could spill into an argument. He once again resumed his walk, his steps more forceful and firm than ever before. Upon reaching the other base of the hill, he could see the silhouette of the Hall of Elders on the horizon.

Finally, after another 15 minutes of walking, he reached the entrance of the Hall. The tall, spherical stone structure and its massive, gaping open wooden doors intimidated him, the statues to either side of the door of famous Namekian heroes, proudly wielding spears and scimitars from long-gone days taunted him. They had died proud, as legends to their people. If what Saonel believed what was about to happen transpired today, he would die a disgrace, barely above a demon in the eyes of current and future generations.

After taking an even deeper breath and wiping the accumulated sweat of himself, he walked inside. Upon entering the main room, Saonel's first sight was Pirina, sitting on one of the two chairs that had been laid out for the brothers-in-arms to testify before the Elders. Saonel awkwardly shuffled into the vacant seat. On his comrade's face was an attempt at a brave smirk, reduced by the the gravity of the situation into a blank, hollow gaze. The two waited eagerly, each tick of the wooden clock directly above the judges' podium eating away at their feeble facades of composure and tranquility. Finally, a tribune of elders took their seats; the chubby, black-robed Lute, the skinny, white-robed Cello wielding glasses, and the red-robed, balanced Xylo standing directly on the central podium. Few spectators were in the circular row of seats wrapped around the edge of the colosseum. With everything in place, Xylo wasted no time beginning the trial.

"Saonel, we have determined that you and your partner Pirina, in spite of the combined efforts of over 60% of our tribe, have failed to procure an adequate result in the Tournament of Power. What do you have to say of this?"

"Elder, do understand." Pirina began, his partner still too nervous to speak. "We put in our best effort, but the other fighters were simply too powerful for us."

"That excuse won't cut it, I'm afraid." Cello chimed in. "Remember, this was entirely your idea. You promised everyone that with their powers combined, it would be more than enough to defeat even the top tier threats in the Tournament. The only reason we even gave our blessings to your plan to begin with was because it was the biggest threat to the existence of our entire species in thousands of years, and it was either approve it or have our species and all of Universe 6 be erased. Lute, remind me again: What was the combined amount of knockouts Saonel and Pirina got?"

"Absolutely zero." Lute replied in an almost snarky tone.

What followed was a brief silence, where Pirina once again contemplated what he would say next. He knew it was pure desperation, but he figured it was worth a try. Once again he spoke. "Is it really that big of a deal? Our universe and our species is secure."

Xylo's face contorted into a frown. "Our universe is safe solely because some android had enough kindness in his heart to bail us out with his wish to the Super Dragon Balls. You played no role in ensuring our survival, nor convincing said android to make his bold choice. And our species? Secure?! Pirina, there are hundreds of Namekians inside of you alone. Hundreds of workers, tamers, fishers and farmers. Our crops and other goods for trade have nobody to oversee them, house chores remain undone. Families have been torn to shreds, and entire settlements are now ghost towns, all because of a promise you couldn't keep."

At this statement, Cello and Lute nodded in unison. Xylo then demanded the pair to voice any further objections they had. Pirina and Saonel tried so hard to bring themselves to say something, anything to save themselves from the punishment they could already foresee. But they knew that no matter how hard they tried to market their potential usefulness, everything the Elders had just said was completely true, and that even if it wasn't, their minds were made up anyway. The pair felt like they had a weight crushing their throats, choking out their ability to even speak a single word. At their silence, Xylo gave a solemn nod and delivered the speech Saonel and Pirina had been mentally preparing themselves for for the past 3 days.

"Saonel and Pirina, your bodies and reputation are tainted. Tainted by the hatred and scorn of the souls inside you, tainted by your failure to pay them back for the faith they had in you, tainted by the ills you have brought upon our civilization. As such, they cannot and will not be used for any sort of sacrifice. At the same time, we are not a warmongering society, nor one with plenty of material wealth a criminal or warlord would pursue, making your strength useless for conquest or defense. As such, only one option remains: To take the souls out of your body and place them back in theirs via the process of Soulsowing. The procedure will almost certainly result in your death and will be excruciatingly painful while you remain conscious, but we believe it is adequate punishment for taking advantage of a horrific crisis to fulfill your own delusions of grandeur, only to completely and utterly fail to make any sort of impact, even on the weakest foes in the Tournament of Power."

At this point, Saonel should've broke down. His fate was sealed, all his fears had come to life, and there was no way to escape it without becoming a vagabond and fleeing the planet, doomed to spend the rest of his life with enraged spirits stuck inside his head, with even the few who forgave him turning against him, regularly reminding him of his dishonor and cowardice. And yet something compelled him to stand up. He couldn't give up; he was staring death in the face, and for reasons unknown, he decided to defy the fate that had been laid for him, or at least stall it out.

"Elder Xylo, do you not think this is a waste? We are some of the strongest Namekian warriors to ever live by virtue of the amount of people we have absorbed, and you intend to discard us without witnessing our full potential? You say you have no need for us, but think about this. What if an enemy comes who you cannot prevail against? An enemy who has reasons to defeat you more personal than gold and jewels? What then? Do you run for help as usual? Try to make another 100-man abomination, crippling the economy further and making yourselves look like fools in the process ? Deal with me how you will, but I believe that you are the ones who will end up suffering from this decision the most."

A long silence followed this speech. The air once again adopted that eerie stillness Saonel had felt before leaving his hut. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Xylo uttered two words.

"30 days."

"What?"

"30 days. That's how long you have to prove that the sacrifice truly wasn't a waste. How you'll do that is up to you, but if you cannot prove your worth to us, no amount of persuasion or idle chatter will be able to stave off your fate any longer. Now go."

At those final words, almost like it was a command addressed to themselves, the elders and the select few in the stands stood up and shuffled their way out of the Hall, leaving Saonel and Pirina to sit in the middle of the court, not making a sound. Even as they began to make their steady steps together back to their village, they did not so much as acknowledge one another. Meanwhile, both of their thoughts were occupied by the ensuing hundred-man argument now raging on inside both of their heads. Was Saonel's speech insolence to save his own skin or a stunning show of bravery? Could they serve use as exceedingly powerful warriors, or was this excess strength as useless as the elders had decreed? And most importantly and pressingly of all, did they deserve this chance at redemption, and if so, how could they and would they fulfill it? Regardless of what their host bodies believed, the various young and old souls housed within them argued and argued.

Finally, the life-long comrades reached the very same grassy hill where the first argument had occurred in Saonel's head.

"So brother, how do you propose we're gonna prove our worth to the elders?" asked Pirina.

"We have to leave." Saonel replied. "We have to leave for Planet Sadal and bring our case to Cabba. From there, we have to hope we are given a spot in their police force and sent on a hard enough mission."

Pirina opened his mouth to object, but all he could do was let it hang open for a few seconds before it closed again. He knew there were no better options; they already had connections with the Saiyan elites from the Tournament of Power, and they could probably muscle through some of the paperwork should they allow them to stay. Saonel then began jogging, with his comrade right behind him.

When their run ended, they had arrived at a dock. The entrance was shuttered by a blue steel door with a giant green symbol of a Namekian's head on the front doors. Next to the door was a button. As Saonel headed to press it, another voice rung in his head, this time one of an older man.

Don't you dare step foot in there! If you desecrate your father's legacy just to cowardly flee, the gods shall eternally curse you…

Saonel pressed the button, totally disregarding this threat. On a normal day, this would've gotten him to back down, but his successful testimony against the Elders filled him with a new sense of youth and rebelliousness; he was not going to let any old mens' outbursts decide whether he lived or died.

As the hangar doors slowly ratcheted open, Pirina got a good look at the former workshop of Saonel's father. On the left side of the worn gray room were stacks of cardboard boxes with various tools, parts and wires leaking out onto the floor. To the right was a trophy case filled with accolades and proof of the various milestones of his father's illustrious career as a mechanic. But the most fantastical specimen was in the middle of the room; a modified Galactic Patrol cruiser, a dome-shaped vessel painted green and red, plastered with decals of all the unions, companies and conventions Saonel's father was a part of, and with a single glass cockpit with two seats in it, along with all the ship's controls.

Pirina got into the cockpit along with Saonel, who was preparing the vessel for take-off. When Saonel was younger, his father had given him some basic training on how to control the ship, so he knew it was not an issue. However, he… …disappeared before he could teach his son about the mechanics of the ship and the various troubleshooting procedures. Considering the humble ship hadn't been started in a while, Saonel was initially worried. To his pleasant surprise, the ship's engine activated with relatively little trouble and more than enough fuel to make it to Sadal, assuming he used an ideal route.

As the ship began to hover out of its hangar and over the plains and huts of Namek, a new worry overcame the two men piloting it. They had never left their planet; Saonel's father had strictly forbidden him from travelling between planets with his ship while he was still in-training, and while they had participated in the Tournament of Power, that was a controlled environment where they weren't forced to learn about the competitors' cultures and beliefs, nor learn the landscapes of their homelands. They were able to suppress this worry by reminding themselves of what would happen if they turned back, but only barely. Closing his eyes and taking one final deep breath, Saonel lifted up a lever on the control panel and sent the ship into its highest gear, rocketing off Namek's surface.