Half an hour later..
Ceeta woke up. He got up and looked around. Kakarot lay besides him, still out cold. Then he saw Nappa, but who were the other two guys he was seeing? He walked over to them. " Awake I see" Nappa said. " Yes I guess so, who are they?" Ceeta asked. Vegeta got up from the branch he was sitting on. " I take it you are Dratok, or as you call yourself 'Ceeta' " Vegeta said," I'm the prince of all saiyans, Vegeta". Ceeta looked confused:" Dratok? Who's that supposed to be?". " That's your real name you silly" Nappa said. " Yeah, just like I was called "Goku" back on Earth.. good times" Kakarot said as he also got up. " Welcome back amongst the living little brother" Raditz said with a smile. Vegeta didn't gave Kakarot a look and continued to give his attention to Ceeta. " So now that that's done, can you show us the way to this thing's core?" Vegeta asked. " I think so, I've seen it before" Ceeta answered." Great show us" Nappa said. " Okay down there" Ceeta said and flew down to the ground. The other saiyans followed. Back on the ground, Ceeta quickly found an entry into the tree. After he little walk in the tree's inner halls, they reached the core. It was like a purple heart. " That's just disguising" Raditz said when he saw the heart. The Hollow tree's essence poured out of the heart- like organism into a small lake. " This is it, this is the place" Ceeta said. The three saiyans had an evil grin on their face. Suddenly Vegeta stepped forward, pushing Ceeta aside. " Raditz, ready your scouter" Vegeta said enthusiastically. " Right, ready when you are prince" Raditz replied. Vegeta bowed down. He used an ancient cup that was laying around and filled it with the essence water. He got back up. For a second he glanced at the cup, hesitating a bit. But then he drank it and threw the cup to the ground. Raditz activated his scouter. Vegeta immediately felt a surge of pure power within himself! He started to emit purple light and started to power up. The tree began to shake. " 19.000,20.000,21.000..." Raditz said while the sweat appeared on his forehead. Nappa, Dratok and Kakarot were watching in awe. " Wow it's still going up!" Raditz yelled," 22.000, 23.000!". " This.. can't.. be!" Nappa said to himself. Dratok was amazed by the sheer power of Vegeta, he had never ever sensed something like this, even before Vegeta's power up. Kakarot on the other hand was being his sarcastic usual self:" If he keeps this up he's going to pop his head". Vegeta reached his peak. " Fighting power 24.500.. that's unbelievable.. " Raditz mumbled. He realized his power was nothing compared to that of the saiyan prince now. " HAHAHA I FEEL GREAT!" Vegeta yelled in excitement. He powered down again and his aura disappeared. He walked over to the others. " Good job Dratok" Vegeta said," I'll be a nice guy for once and let you go after me". Dratok didn't hesitate and walked up to the lake. This was the moment he had been waiting for a long time. May times he bled for the occasion to tap into this cursed tree's power. He picked up the cup and filled it like Vegeta. " Hope you get a reading on this one" Nappa whispered to Raditz. Vegeta crossed his arms and waited in anticipation. Dratok drank form the cup. Like with Vegeta the essence's power quickly worked. Dratok followed Vegeta's example and tried to power up. Raditz activated his scouter." 2500, 3000, 4000" Raditz said. Dratok gave everything he had and pushed himself even further. " 5000,6000,7000," Raditz yelled. "WHAT?!" Nappa scream in anger, Dratok had surpassed him in power. Ceeta also reached his full power and settled down. " 7100 is the guy's full power" Raditz said to Vegeta. " Good, now he's more useful" the saiyan prince bluntly said. Over the next 20 minutes Nappa and Raditz got their shot at the core's essence. Raditz increased from around 1500 to a good 6300. Nappa on the other hand went from 6500 to 11.000.
Now it was Kakarot's turn. He walked over towards the lake. Nappa had smashed the cup, so he had to use his hands to drink. He bowed down and took some of the water. he drank from it. But what happened to him was entirely different from the others. Kakarot began to scream and grabbed his head in pain. The other saiyans didn't knew what was happening. " Little brother!" Raditz yelled. " What's this?" Vegeta said, " Hey Dratok, what's happening? Answer me now!". " I don't know! But I once heard the essence is extra potent when consumed by people with impure hearts or people who are heartless" Dratok said. " Everyone is a cold killer here, so what's the difference with the low class?" Vegeta said annoyed. Kakarot began to emit steam. " Goddamn! Raditz, check your scouter NOW!" Vegeta ordered. Raditz, more concerned by what was happening to his brother, activated it. He was speechless:" it's going over 10.000!". " That's impossible, he was at 1300 before!" Nappa yelled. Vegeta was amazed as well. Meanwhile Kakarot was suffering. He heard voices inside of his head. When he opened his eyes, he saw Chi-Chi standing in front of him. Next to her stood grandpa Gohan and Kami. The three looked angry. " Chi-chi?! Gramps? And the cricket? What are you doing here?!" Kakarot mumbled. " You killed us" Chi-Chi said, which got repeated by the other two. Kakarot tried to stand up, but was being kept down by King Chappa and a Kodiashian warrior. " Grrr get your dirty hands off me!" Kakarot yelled. He felt powerless, unable to get up or resist. " You really thought you could get away with it?" Bulma, who just appeared, said to the downed saiyan. More and more people started to appear out of nowhere, all of them killed by the saiyan. " Why did you do it? I loved you as my own son?" Son Gohan said. A small kid appeared behind Chi-Chi, he had a saiyan tail and really resembled Kakarot. " Why did you do it daddy?" it asked. " SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!"Kakarot yelled."This is.. could have been your son" Chi-Chi said," I was pregnant".Before Kakarot could utter a word, a big explosion followed. It vaporized everyone, including Chi-chi, her kid and grandpa gohan. When the explosion cleared, Kakarot saw himself standing amongst the burning bodies. He still had his Earth rags on and laughed maniacally. Then Kakarot awoke from his hallucinations. He was back in the Hollow tree's sanctuary. His Brother Raditz and Dratok were holding him. " What.. what the hell happened?" Kakarot mumbled. " You blacked out during your power up" Raditz said. " What did you see?" Dratok asked. Kakarot quickly explained the things he saw. Dratok looked disturbed. " I think it's the hollow tree that is trying to mess up your mind" Dratok said, " And I also think you regret everything you did". Kakarot pushed Dratok away and got up, angrily saying:" I don't regret anything, every last one of them deserved a miserable death".
Meanwhile a couple of meters further, Nappa and Vegeta were talking to each other." Prince, how is it possible for a low class to go the powerlevel of 10.000 in an instant?!" Nappa said with a trace of anger. " I don't really know Nappa.. It's a very odd case" Vegeta said, " In any case, we'll need his power for the time being..". The saiyans regrouped. " What do we do now prince Vegeta?" Raditz asked the prince. " We'll need a miracle if we are going to beat Frieza" Nappa said. Vegeta sighed. To be honest the saiyan prince didn't know what to do either. They were wanted throughout the universe by now. It would take long for Frieza's army to find them here. Things weren't looking to good for the last saiyans alive. " I've got an idea" Kakarot said out of nowhere. Nappa laughed:" What big idea does our bright low class have?!". " Let's hear it" Dratok added. " When I was on Earth, I collected spheres known as dragonballs. These things could grant any wish you want" Kakarot explained. Nappa didn't buy the story. Raditz and Dratok were frowning their eyebrows. " Continue" Vegeta bluntly said." I almost had all seven you had to collect, but then there were some unfortunate turns which forces me to kill the dragon that grants the wishes" Kakarot said. " So you are telling me that the thing is dead? How is this helping anything?!" Vegeta said with an elevated voice. " Well, the dragon was created by an green alien that landed on the planet. If we can identify which alien it was, we can track its home world. If we find it, we can make ourselves a new set of balls and wish whatever we want!" Kakarot said. " We can wish it to kill Frieza?" Raditz asked. " Don't be a fool Raditz, we'll wish for immortality so I can defeat Frieza myself" Vegeta laughed. Kakarot's plan brought hope back to the saiyans. " So where will we find any clues on the alien?" Dratok said. " Earth" Kakarot said," With some luck, the guardian's palace is still floating". " So be it, we are off to Earth" Vegeta decided. Vegeta, Nappa and Dratok walked ahead and left the tree. Kakarot stood still. Raditz walked over to him:" Is something troubling you?". " It's not your problem, back off" Kakarot said. Raditz walked away. After a minute Kakarot followed. The saiyans boarded their spaceships. Dratok's ship was old and not maintained, so they had to fly slower to spare it's ancient engine. The five saiyan ships left the planet Z'Haessa, leaving it to be claimed by nature once again..
What they didn't realize, was that they were followed. A small fleet of Frieza's forces were tracking them. On one of the ships was no one other than Cui, not intending to let the saiyan slip away a second time. " Follow them, but be discrete. We don't want the monkey prince to detect us just yet" Cui said to the ship's captain. Cui turned on his scouter:" Yes master Frieza, we are following them.. Yes Vegeta and his team.. There is a fifth pod with them.. I don't know.. Okay master Frieza" and then turned it off. " Commander Cui, according to our spyware their pods have plotted a course to a planet in the Outer Ring called 'Earth'" the captain said. " Great" Cui said…