Episode 64
Rejuvenated Ultimatum
Frieza's ship continued to be in shaking turmoil while everyone was angrily searching for the source of these disturbances and the two explosions that had just occurred.
Frieza, King Cold, and the Ginyu Force hurried upstairs, back to the second floor. They scattered to find out who or what was causing this. Along the hallways, there was Appule who was heading to the isolation tank room. He was shocked to find his companion, Orlen, dead and his head crushed. Appule stood there for a moment. When he looked up and saw the tank broken and shattered as if someone blasted his way out of it, Appule now realized what was going on here.
Frieza happened to come by and saw Appule from a distance. He angrily questioned, "Appule, what in the blazes is going on here?!"
Appule turned to him and immediately said, "Lord Frieza! Vegeta is gone! He's not in the recovery room!"
Frieza stood there for a moment, comprehending this for a moment. His crimson eyes grew wide, his arms began to shake. He just now realized that the one causing this chaos was the Saiyan Prince himself. Not only that, he could be anywhere in this ship.
Frieza was almost paralyzed. "No, don't tell me. No…IMPOSSIBLE! He's after the DragonBalls!"
"What?!" Appule exclaimed.
Frieza hurried to the main interior of his ship, the place where he mindlessly had let his DragonBalls be exposed to anyone who might come across them. Unfortunately for the galactic overlord, he may already be minutes too late.
Vegeta had blasted a hole in the window, where all this time he had been throwing the five DragonBalls out of that hole at full force and as far as he can. He was at the last DragonBall. He turned around and glanced one more time behind him as if to give a mocking farewell to the tyrants and their recruits. Finally, he hurled the last DragonBall out of the ship. Immediately, his aura surrounded him as he took off in the skies and left Frieza's spaceship. At full speed, he tracked down the five DragonBalls once more while having a triumphant look on his face, knowing he was one step ahead of them again.
Debris continued to fall and the Namekians still huddled in one corner in their rooms. The room with the five village elders inside, one of the Namekian warriors noticed that the door was slightly damaged, specifically the hinges. He had an idea, thinking it was the perfect chance to somehow escape.
The Namekian warrior charged forward and used his body to knock the door down, but it was no use.
One of the village elders saw this and asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to get all of us out of here, Elder Tsuno!" cried out the Namekian warrior who decided to try again in knocking the door down.
The Namekians were afraid and refused to escape at first, but they went ahead to seize this chance, hoping they would regain their freedom somehow. The younger, much stronger Namekians then pitched in to help their fellow companion. After much supporting strength from one other, the door finally fell! The Namekians in this room were out.
"Come on!" urged the Namekian warriors.
The village elders began to stand while keeping the Namekian children close to them. The other young adult Namekians went ahead and led the villagers and the children to safety.
The Namekian warriors were about to free their other companions who were still locked in other rooms, but they must deal with Frieza's men first who were still patrolling the base level of the ship. They had their artillery ready whilst saying, "Don't let them get away!"
Frieza's men fired laser beams, but the Namekian warriors took no effort in evading them and then, bringing them to defeat. While half of them busied fighting Frieza's minions, the other half went ahead to free the other Namekians. One by one, the Namekians emerged from their rooms and tried to escape through any exit doors and windows they could find.
Jeice, Recoome, and Guldo hurried to the lounge room to get their scouters, but only to find that they were blown to bits.
"Gah! Our scouters! That blasted Vegeta must've blown them to bits!" Jeice exclaimed.
Recoome stood there, gaped and confused.
Guldo lectured them, "Captain Ginyu was right. You should've kept your scouters, and now look what happened to them! You guys can be so careless sometimes."
"Hey, I ain't having a blue with you at this time. Those are a lot of big words coming from someone who doesn't even wear a scouter!" Jeice spat.
"Well, excuse me for having a big, distracting head!" Guldo said back.
As for Frieza, he arrived at main interior of his ship, but he was already too late. He was shocked at first, and then a rush of unbearable anger seethed in his chest. No matter which way he looked, all five of his DragonBalls were gone. To add more to his rage, a melted hole was at his window and these kinds of damages done to his ship may cause it to malfunction for sure at some point.
Captain Ginyu and Burter came inside the room to inform him that Vegeta was gone, but noticing their master's rage and the lost DragonBalls, they knew Frieza had already witnessed the event that could not be prevented from happening because he was too careless, too reckless. Frieza had completely underestimated Vegeta.
"Lord Frieza?" asked Captain Ginyu.
Frieza was tightening his fists, his eyes of blood color shaking violently. Suddenly, his tail smashed the floor, breaking it with some pieces of it scattering everywhere.
King Cold soon came in and also noticed that the DragonBalls had been stolen. He glanced at his son's face and saw the burning rage in his eyes.
Soon, the rest of the Ginyu Force came in and they, too, saw what happened to the DragonBalls.
Frieza was furiously growling under his breath, but before the tyrant had literally exploded, King Cold stopped him. In fact, he was not worried or frustrated at all. At first, he was just as serious as he was, but a smile slowly reappeared on his face. Frieza saw this and suspected that his father knew something that he did not. Why did he look so calm even at a time like this?
"What are you even smirking about?!" Frieza questioned him. "You're actually glad that the DragonBalls were stolen by that worthless Saiyan?!"
King Cold walked passed him while keeping his eyes staring intently out of the window, where Vegeta had blasted a hole there. "Of course not. I'm just as angry as you are, Frieza, but I try to keep my head cool. Listen to me though. We can't delay. I think I should take over for now and take care of this problem."
"What do you mean?" Frieza continued to question him angrily.
"I'll bring your Ginyu Force with me and take back all those DragonBalls. We'll also find the last two while we're at it," King Cold said. "In the meantime, stay here and keep guard of the ship and the Namekians here."
"Are you trying to order me around, Father? I absolutely hate it you when try to patronize me like that!" Frieza rebuked him.
"This is not the time to argue with me," King Cold stared at him this time. "If we waste any more time, our enemies would make their wish instead."
He smirked again. "You don't want that to happen now, do you? I'll handle this. I'll put things back to the way we expect them to be just like," he snapped his fingers, "that."
"Rrrgh…and how do you expect to find the last two DragonBalls, may I ask?" Frieza growled.
"I know the location of one of them," King Cold mentioned.
The Ginyu Force and Frieza were surprised to hear this.
"What do you mean 'you know'?" asked Frieza, a little confused.
His father chuckled. "It's with the Eldest Namekian in this planet. He's located straight there," he pointed in the northeast direction. "He's basically someone the Nameks pay respects to, maybe including us 'visitors.' After all, he's the one who created the Namekian DragonBalls."
Frieza's suspicions were right all along about his father definitely knowing something that he did not. It only meant his father had been to Namek before, but for what purpose? What mystified him more was that why he did not bother to take over this planet when he came here once? He was mad again. "So you've been to this puny planet before? What were you even doing here in the first place?! And why didn't you seize chance when you had it?!"
King Cold did not reply to him this time, his lips just pulled to a conniving smile.
The Ginyu Force, while listening to the both of them, shifted their focus from King Cold to their master, Frieza. They had nothing to say, really. As for Frieza, he must admit now, he was embarrassed to be acting like this and that he was making all of these humiliating mistakes. He was not being a good role model for being the self-proclaimed ruler of the galaxies. He felt like the decisions he was making now were only backfiring at him; yet this was no time to analyze or try to uphold his pride. He guessed he should let his father take over the mission for now or else, they would all fall back to square one. He just could not stand the way he is acting sometimes, how his father thinks he is still far more superior and clever and how he likes to keep secrets. It always made Frieza think that his father had other selfish plans in mind that he may well resent.
Frieza had calmed down a bit, but the intensity in his eyes remained there. He turned his head towards the Ginyu Force and told them, "Do as he says."
The Ginyu Force obeyed. All of the members then walked towards King Cold and stood behind him.
King Cold turned towards them and gave them the command that they should wait for him outside. One by one, the members of the Frieza's elite force departed and waited for their king outside. Before King Cold had also left, he grabbed his scouter that was kept well-hidden from Vegeta, and it was a red scouter just like Frieza's. He put it around his eye, and just before he departed, Frieza suddenly told him.
"I swear, if all of you are going to take too long just to get back all those DragonBalls, I won't hesitate to kill every last one of you," he stared into his father's eyes, which meant he will subject him to the same fate as he planned to do with the rest of his men, parent or not, should they all fail him.
King Cold grinned evilly and was not fazed by his son's threat. Without another word, he left and met with the Ginyu Force outside. Once they saw him coming, King Cold positioned himself in front and led the way.
Immediately after they left, Appule came inside the room, seemingly tired and still panicking. "Lord Frieza! The Namekians! They're escaping! They were able to get out of their rooms!"
Frieza turned around quickly. "How dare they…," and without another word, he flew right passed Appule and went outside, where the back of his ship was. Indeed, he saw the Namekians, some whom had already escaped. Some were frozen and unsure where to go because of a raging battle that was going on between the Namekian warriors and Frieza's minions. Frieza spotted the five village elders who still kept the children protected in their arms.
"Hyah!" one Namekian fighter landed a powerful punch straight to a minion's face.
"Kyah!" another one took down a Frieza henchman by clasping his hands together and crushing him to the ground.
As the Namekian warriors teamed up to decrease their enemies' numbers, suddenly, one of the minions was deliberately killed by their master himself, and that was Frieza who had stepped in the midst of this battle and decided to take care of this mess.
The Namekian warriors were shocked, but they kept to their fighting stances.
Frieza then threw the henchman that he killed towards the ocean. He then reprimanded the rest of his men whom he decided to spare since he needed an army still to do his biddings and minimal jobs, at least. "Don't tell me all of you can't even handle a group of Nameks with such insignificant power levels. Must I do everything myself?!"
The rest of his henchmen trembled in fear and tried to beg for his mercy, promising that they will deal with the Namekians and make sure they put them back to their places.
"Stop screwing up and start doing things right!" demanded Frieza. He then turned his attention towards the Namekians, "And as for all of you…"
The Namekian fighters were intimidated by his evil-boding appearance, but that did not stop them from facing him themselves. They were determined to liberate their people, even if they had to face possibly the strongest being alive in the galaxies. They headed towards him, at full power.
Frieza stood there with a livid look. One Namekian warrior was about to make his first move at the tyrant, but Frieza, in just the blink of an eye, grabbed his arm and went for a paralyzing punch at his chest, breaking every bone in his body. He immediately fell to the ground, unconscious up until the point of his death. Two more Namekian warriors were able to make a successful hit, but the galactic overlord did not feel any pain at all. He then took one of them down, grabbing his neck and burying him towards the earth. Immediately, he took the other one, damaging him with his armor-like hand and then sweeping him off with his reptile-tail, making him collide to a near-by boulder. All of them were now dead.
The other Namekian warriors began to back away in fear. They had never seen such formidable strength before.
Just before Frieza spoke, suddenly, another one of the Namekian warriors attempted to attack the heartless emperor. Gathering all of his strength, he discharged a shimmering energy beam from both of his hands. As soon it made contact with Frieza, it exploded greatly and illuminated the island they were standing on. The Namekian breathed heavily, wondering if he was able to weaken him somehow, but from the smoke that surrounded the emperor emerged Frieza himself. In rapid speed, he got behind his opponent before he could realize that he was standing right behind him. Using just his left hand, he drove it through the Namekian's stomach, his hand exposed to the other side of his abdomen. The rest of the Namekians were traumatized to see this especially for the children.
Frieza released his hand from the Namekian warrior as he fell to the ground with purple blood pouring from his stomach.
Frieza turned his attention towards the Namekians again, those who did not dare to attack the tyrant. "Shall I continue this bloodbath of mine? Or has the message finally gotten through your heads?"
Elder Tsuno cannot take this anymore. Too many of his fellow people had fallen and had been killed mindlessly. He stepped forward with his walking stick, but he did not attack the tyrant like the rest. There was no way that they could win, but he felt he must make a proposal. Elder Tsuno cried, "Listen, you monster! If your intention is really to just get our DragonBalls, then fine! You can use them and make your wish!"
Frieza reminded him, "You do recall that I also intend to take over your planet, right?"
"But immortality is what you really want, isn't?" he tried to persuade him. "We'll make your wish happen, but you must promise us to leave this planet for good once you have it. Please! We've suffered for far too long! Besides, there're other planets in this universe for you to conquer, other ones that are more useful for your organization, unlike our very weak and frail planet where you could barely find any life."
Frieza kept listening to him. He slowly placed his hands behind his back.
"For you, there's no greater reward than having eternal life," Elder Tsuno continued. "When you get back all our DragonBalls, we'll make your wish happen. And promise us that you'll leave!"
The word "immortality" echoed inside Frieza's mind. Now that he thought about this more, immortality may be the only reason why he came to this planet in the first place. The idea of taking over Planet Namek was an idea that his father came up with and he seemed to agree to. But now, since he was, at the moment, immensely disliking the way his father was trying to control things around here, Frieza felt he should make a decision for this at least.
Frieza began to grin with wickedness. "Okay then. Sounds like a nice proposal…for once, I'm actually agreeing with someone who's a lot inferior to me."
Immediately though, his smile faded. He began to walk back towards the ship whilst ordering his other men, "All of you, clean up this mess and make sure get these Namekians back to their rooms. They won't be released until I get my wish."
The henchmen went to work and began to dispose the Namekian bodies that Frieza killed. The rest of his subordinates began to forcefully push the Namekians back towards Frieza's ship. Another elder came up to Elder Tsuno and asked, "Elder Tsuno, are you really going to do this?"
Tsuno whispered back to his fellow brother. "For now, this is the only decision I can think of. It should keep Frieza from spreading his carnage to our people for a while, at least until someone saves us."
"But who will save us?" asked the other village elder with uncertainty for the future.
Elder Tsuno put his head down and frowned. "I really hope that the Grand Elder is safe and that…Nail has been informed about this chaos somehow."
The Namekians were locked up once more while the children wept in great fear and sorrow.
As King Cold and the Ginyu Force tracked down their stolen DragonBalls, while covering some distances, Captain Ginyu placed a hand on his scouter and already found someone, presumably Vegeta, who was moving away from them.
"Your Majesty, we've located Vegeta!" Ginyu told him. "He's not too far from here. I bet he'll lead us to where the DragonBalls he stole."
King Cold turned on his scouter and indeed, he also found the location of the Saiyan Prince; however, an idea hit him, urging him to stop at place. After coming to a complete halt, so did the rest of the Ginyu Force, wondering why he suddenly stopped.
King Cold told them, "Hold on. Let's not get hasty. Vegeta has all five DragonBalls, but let's wait until he gets all seven."
The Ginyu Force became urprised and they began to mutter amongst themselves.
"But my lord!" Captain Ginyu interrupted. "If Vegeta gets all seven, then you and Lord Frieza may not be able to make your wish."
King Cold turned around and faced him. His tall, broad structure and his sinister appearance made Ginyu and the rest of his crew back off a bit. They felt nervous.
Their king grinned again. "That useless Saiyan won't get his wish. We'll just wait until all seven DragonBalls are collected in one spot, or at least be in close proximity of each other and then, we strike."
The Ginyu Force had no choice but to obey him. All they could do now was to wait for King Cold's signal.
Back in the hideout, the Z-warriors and the Namekians had just come out of the cave. Elder Moori was walking up front and Krillin was beside him, wanting to ask a question.
"Okay, so the place of this Eldest Namekian, you said it's gonna take us days to get there? But I don't think there won't be any time by then to save your planet!" Krillin fretted a little. "There has got to be a faster way to get there."
"Well, flying at full speed can work," Gohan mentioned, "but using up too much of our energies will allow the bad guys detect us."
Raditz said, "He's right. We must keep a low profile still."
Elder Moori then answered, "Don't worry. There is a faster way to get there. Maybe it'll only take us seconds, but this technique I will do exerts much energy, it's hard to keep it subtle."
"Subtle?" asked Gohan.
Moori smiled. "Unfortunately, for my old age, I have to exert more power to make this technique work."
Bardock emerged from the cave. "What's this mode of transportation then?"
"Teleportation," Elder Moori replied.
Krillin smacked his palm on his head. "Oh yeah, duh! Hey, we can actually teleport ourselves there, right? I mean, we know that technique, don't we? We're superhuman after all!"
"But I thought you need to be familiar with a person's energy first in order to get to them," Raditz mentioned.
Krillin thought he made a good point. "…oh yeah, you're right. I mean, we don't even know what the Eldest Namekian looks like, so it'll be difficult to find someone we've never met before."
"Then let me do the honors," Elder Moori said. "It's a risk to take, but we won't have to travel for days and if we explain our situation quickly, our Grand Elder will have your powers unlocked in no time."
Moori then turned to Dende and Cargo who were standing beside Bulma. "My brethren, you two stay here while I escort our heroes to the Grand Elder's place."
"But I really want to go with you!" insisted Dende.
"Me, too! I want to see Nail and Guru!" Cargo said.
"It's too dangerous for young ones out there," Moori then placed his hands on their shoulders. "Don't worry. We'll be back soon."
Dende and Cargo soon complied and they both stayed with Bulma.
Krillin then happened to look at Gohan. A strong warrior he was, he was still very young, but after checking out that determined look on his face, he was reminded that he was half-Saiyan after all. Besides, Gohan may be hiding a lot more potential in him that can be unlocked and can make him even stronger than before. He then nodded to Gohan, asking if he was ready to go. Gohan went with Krillin and Raditz followed afterwards. Bardock was about to join them until all of a sudden, he saw another vision in his head. He stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes shook.
Bulma held Dende's and Cargo's shoulders while telling to her friends, "You guys better get back here as soon as you can!"
"We will, Bulma. Don't worry," Krillin assured her. He then realized Bardock was not with them. He noticed him just standing there with his hand on his forehead.
"Hey, Bardock, you coming with us?" asked Krillin.
Yet, he did not respond. He was distracted and alarmed to be experiencing this sharp pain in his head. In this vision, he saw Frieza and another tyrant, whom he believed to be Frieza's father, and they were standing side-by-side, their sinister auras emitting this dark vibe in the air with flames surrounding them.
Bardock continued to feel this seemingly incessant ache; he gnashed his teeth together, his left hand clenching into a fist.
Bulma released the young Namekians' shoulders and approached him. "Hey, Bardock, is something wrong?"
Raditz and Gohan turned around and were very worried about him. They approached him and asked if he was feeling all right.
Bardock felt the pain getting sharper, he turned around and tried to walk back towards the cave. "I…I think I need to lay down for a moment," suddenly, after he took another step, he felt this uncomfortable jolt in his head. He did not know, but he almost lost balance, his shoulder hitting against the wall of the cave.
"Grandpa!" Gohan exclaimed.
"Bardock!" cried Bulma. She quickly went to him and helped him walk. "Okay, you definitely need to rest. Come on, I'll give you some aspirin."
"I think he needs a more effective medicine than aspirin!" Krillin believed.
Raditz although was the only one who knew the truth behind his headaches. Nevertheless, he quickly walked to his father and took his other arm around his shoulders to help him walk back towards the cave. Elder Moori, Dende, and Cargo were concerned as well. They followed the Z-warriors from behind and stayed in their hideout for a while.
In the living room, Bardock was lying on the couch. He was still awake and he kept his hand on his forehead. He seemed to be in pain still. Gohan, Krillin, and the Namekians were in the kitchen, waiting for Bulma and Raditz to finish treating him. They soon entered the dining room.
"How's Grandpa Bardock?" asked Gohan with a lot of concern. "Is he okay?"
"He's doing fine now," Bulma said with a smile, trying to calm the boy down. "He just needs some rest, that's all. I think he's put a lot of strain on himself from fighting aliens and all that."
Krillin slipped his hands inside the pockets of his orange pants. "Raditz, I hope your father doesn't have a migraine problem or anything. He's not sick, is he?"
"No, he doesn't have any health issues," Raditz told him.
"So, what caused him to have this headache?" Krillin asked who looked slightly confused. "If you remember, he had a similar episode like that when we left Goku to fight Vegeta. Well, the one that we saw back on Earth was kinda severe, but what was really strange is that his headache completely vanished as if it was not there in the first place."
Bulma became curious. "Wait, this happened more than once?"
Gohan agreed with Krillin's reaction. "Yeah, it made us really worried."
Once again, Raditz was the only one who knew the truth. His father can see the future and sometimes, those visions can put him into a state of great pain. Raditz believed his father must have seen a terrible vision earlier, triggering such responses in his mind. In reality, he was even more anxious about what his father saw. Would they all encounter a great peril soon when Frieza and his father meet them, if they happen to find them?
"His headache," Raditz tried to answer Krillin's question earlier, "it just…happens once in a while."
The rest were not convinced that this was the case, but they decided not to speak about it now.
The Z-warriors agreed though that they must stay put for a while until Bardock recovers and can rejoin them in this quest.
While waiting for Bardock to get better, Krillin was struck with a thought. "Hmm, I wonder how Goku's doing out there, as well as Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo in the afterlife. It almost feels like it's been ages since we last heard from them."
Bulma held her arms close to her chest. "You know them, they're warriors. They must be doing a lot of training."
"Yeah," Krillin agreed.
Raditz turned his head to check on his father. He was still lying there, breathing steadily, trying to relax his mind and body, but like his eldest son, he was also anxious about the future.