Chapter 12: Betrayal

Yamcha, Gohan, Tien and Dende watched Zarbon leave, collectively breathing out as they realised they'd live to see another day.

Tien broke the silence first. "Thanks, Yamcha…I didn't think we were going to make it through that one."

"But are we gonna do it?" Gohan asked. "Should we help him get his wish?"

"Hmm…it might be worth it, you know." Yamcha shrugged. "It may be bad letting someone like that get their wish, but if Frieza gets it instead, that'd be much worse. Plus, getting all seven for ourselves, now they have four, would be practically impossible."

"Excuse me…" Dende finally found the courage to speak. "Are you here to help? To protect my people?"

"I really don't know if we can, against enemies that powerful," Tien replied, "but we'd like to."

"Then I guess I should tell you…the dragon grants three wishes."

"Wait, three?" Tien looked over at the small Namekian. "That's great! I bet when our 'friend' has gotten whatever it is he wants, he'll spend a while gloating about it—leaving the other two wishes for us! If we're clever with our wording, I bet we can fix things on Earth and here on Namek in one go."

"C'mon, let's go tell Bulma," Gohan said, smiling now they finally had a plan, and at least a little hope.

Zarbon landed back at the Namekian village, where Frieza and the remainder of his soldiers waited. "Lord Frieza! I have eliminated the threat, but I regret to inform you that Dodoria is dead."

"Is that so?" Frieza stroked his chin. "And yet you survived, unharmed?"

Zarbon struggled to keep his voice steady. "Yes, sir. Only one of them was strong enough to pose a challenge, but he was already tired and worn from fighting Dodoria, and I didn't even need to transform to beat him." He smiled, playing it up. "As for the others, their flesh cooked deliciously…"

"Well, no matter." Frieza shrugged nonchalantly. "There's more where he came from. Well, not literally on the planet he came from—not since my last visit, anyway…"

"Indeed." Zarbon glanced around. "If the Dragon Ball is secure, how should we proceed? Locating the Namekian villages without scouters will be troublesome."

"Well, get to it then," Frieza ordered, waving a hand vaguely. "Zarbon, accompany me back to the ship. The rest of you—comb the planet! Find those last two Dragon Balls, before I lose my patience with the whole lot of you!"

"Now look, you have a fracture there, and if we can't shave the hair off we can't set the bone—"

"The fracture be damned!" Raditz snarled, fending off a shaving-razor-wielding doctor. "You remove one hair and I remove your face, Earthman!" Their struggle was interrupted by a familiar—but not always welcome—voice.

"Hey! Goku! Goku's brother!" Yaijerobe called out, entering the room. "How you doing?"

"Oh, I'm okay, but…" Goku stretched as best he could. "I'm gonna be stuck in hospital for another couple months…how are you doing, Raditz?"

"Oh, you know…" Raditz grumbled. "I'm fine…just locked in mortal combat over here…damn it, leave me alone!" He frowned, focusing his ki and sending the doctor flying across the room.

"Well, whatever." Yaijerobe pulled out a brown leather bag. "But here's your ticket outta hospital, if you want."

"Senzu beans?" Goku's face lit up. "You're the best, Yaijerobe!"

"Yeah, sure. Korin was gonna give Tien some when he went to fight the saiyans, but you two used 'em all up training—try to save some for everybody else this time!"

"Will do!" Taking the bag, Goku popped a bean in his mouth, much to the bemusement of the medical staff, then tossed one to Raditz, who ate it gleefully.

"You know, Kakarot," Raditz said as they leapt out of bed, shaking their bandages off to reveal fully-healed bodies, "irritating doctors aside, I'm really starting to like your planet. This beats the healing tanks any day…so what now?"

"Well, there's good news and bad news." Goku pulled on his gi as Raditz fastened his armour. "The good news is that my ship is ready to go—and I think I'll be needing it, 'cause on Namek there are apparently fighters even stronger than Vegeta, after the Dragon Balls too!"

"What?! When did you hear this? How come I didn't?" They climbed out of the window and took off, as the patients and doctors stared in shock.

Goku shrugged. "You were asleep. You do sleep a lot when you're healing. So anyway, you going to come to Namek with me?"

"Hold on, you're not serious about going, are you?" Capsule Corporation appeared on the horizon. "You'll be killed!"

"I'd expect more courage than that from a saiyan warrior!" Goku answered as they touched down just outside the main building.

"Are you calling me a coward?" Raditz gave his trademark scowl.

"Um…" Goku scratched his head. "Yeah, you could say that, I guess."

"Well, I'm sorry for being a realist." Raditz folded his arms. "Is there nothing I can say to change your mind?"

Goku shook his head firmly. "Nope. We owe it to everyone the invaders killed to bring them back, and besides, I'm not leaving my friends stranded in outer space!"

Raditz followed Goku towards the building, still grumbling. "Well, damn it all, Kakarot, I can't very well let you run off to get into life-or-death battles on your own!"

Goku's smile grew. "You're coming with me? All right! And don't worry about those fighters there—we can train on the way, with the gravity machine I asked Dr. Brief to build!"

"…So that's why we came to Namek," Tien was saying, as Dende listened in silence.

"Then you are good people. I'm glad…" Dende sighed. "…that there are people out there in the galaxy who aren't like Frieza." He was sipping from a glass of water—Namekians required no food, and the scientist in Bulma was wondering if they photosynthesised like plants. Their green skin could be due to chlorophyll, and the constant sunlight on their planet would—she shook her head, trying to focus on matters at hand. "So, uh, Dende…from what I hear, we just need to keep one Dragon Ball hidden, and Frieza can't make his wish."

"Right." Tien nodded. "Do you know where we could find one?"

"Each village has one…" Dende's eyes flicked back and forth around the room. "…Except for one. Guru keeps that one safe."

"Guru?"

"The eldest of our people. He is very wise—perhaps if we went to see him, he would know what to do."

"It might be worth a try." Tien stood up. "You guys stay here. There's no need for us all to risk going out there." He followed Dende out the door, but just as the two of them were about to take flight, Bulma ran up to them. "Wait!" She shouted.

"Huh? What is it, Bulma?"

"I was going to tell you when you got back, but then you told me all about what you'd been doing and I forgot!"

"Tell us what?" This was from Yamcha, who was leaning out of the door behind Bulma.

"My dad called—he said Goku and his brother are out of the hospital, and are on their way here! We've got back-up, and a ride home!"

"That's great!" Tien grinned. "Now all we have to do is stall Frieza and his men until they get here. If we can get our wishes, that's a bonus, but I'll take a stalemate over an immortal enemy. Come on, Dende, let's go see Guru."

"Uh…right." They lifted off and shot away into the sky.

"Zarbon." Frieza addressed his henchman bluntly.

"Yes, Lord Frieza?" The two of them were on their way back to Frieza's ship, with their five Dragon Balls in tow.

"Any idea who those three you killed were?"

Zarbon nodded. "I didn't want to say this earlier—might have panicked the men—but I interrogated one of the weaker ones before I killed him."

"…And?"

"He said…" Zarbon took a deep breath. There was no going back after this. All or nothing. "…He said he was sent by Cooler."

"Cooler? Hmm…not in uniform, he could have been lying…" Frieza considered this. "But then again, if they were spies, there would be no reason for them to be in uniform, and if he'd got wind of my plans somehow, I wouldn't put it past my big brother to interfere." They approached the ship, landing outside and entering the hatch. "Very well. Send for the Ginyu Force, for back-up—now I've discovered him, he may resort to a more direct attack. I'm sure the Ginyus can handle whatever rabble my brother throws at us, while I take care of Cooler himself." He smiled. "And if the 'spy' was lying after all, the Ginyu squad can at least use their scouters to speed up the search for the last two Dragon Balls."

"As ever, my lord, your plans are flawless." Zarbon bowed, and left Frieza to his plans. Doubts filled his mind as he strode down the corridor, receiving salutes from passing soldiers. Had he acted too rashly? Was he just sealing his own fate? No. No, this had to be done. The galaxy would be better off without at least one of those tyrants—but anyway, this wasn't about the galaxy. It's about me. And for all time I take trying to make my appearance immaculate—always, when a battle goes against me I have to resort to that…hideous thing. I can finally be free of the curse of my people...

Hurrying over to the communications console and making sure nobody was around, Zarbon switched it on, inputting the frequency a friend of his had given him. "Come in! Come in, this is Zarbon, do you copy?"

"'Ello? Salza speaking." A heavily-accented voice replied. "This had better be important."

"It is." Zarbon took a moment to compose himself. "Salza, old friend—I have urgent news. Frieza is on a planet called Namek, and he has discovered the means to make himself immortal!"

"Immortal? Are you sure?"

"Positive. It sounds far-fetched, but trust me, all right?"

"Why are you telling me this? I will 'ave to inform Lord Cooler, who will come to this Namek and take immortality for himself."

"Oh, I'm aware of that. But Cooler was always…more reasonable than Frieza. He doesn't incinerate his followers quite so often. Tell him to hurry, or Frieza could already be immortal when he arrives."

"As it happens, we are in the area. Lord Cooler was wondering why Frieza took so many troops into this system, and we were already nearby, observing his flight path."

"I have to go—Zarbon out."

"Take care." The line went dead, and Zarbon immediately opened up another channel. "Come in! Ginyu Force—urgent news from Planet Namek…"

A flickering display on the control panel read '10G'—at his level, it hadn't taken Goku long to get used to it, and Raditz had grown up with ten times Earth's gravity on planet Vegeta, so this was normal to him.

Impacts rocked the ship as the two saiyan warriors battled back and forth, moving from attack to defense and back, launching punches and kicks that could level mountain ranges and shaking the ship to its core. Goku jumped over a low kick from Raditz, somersaulting over his brother's head and countering with an elbow jab from behind. Raditz caught it, spinning around and throwing Goku away, jumping after him and pressing the attack. They had been training for hours on end, and both were at the limit of their endurance, gasping for air as rivers of sweat dripped down to the floor.

"I'm done," Raditz moaned. "I can't take any more. Session over."

"Yep," Goku nodded, "I'm exhausted too. The perfect time to step it up a notch!"

"Wait, what?" Raditz was pulled to the floor as Goku increased the gravity to twenty times Earth's—twice planet Vegeta's.

"Hey, get up!" Goku folded his arms. "This is only twice what you're used to—I'm dealing with Earth's gravity times twenty!"

"You're crazy…" Raditz muttered, climbing unsteadily to his feet. "Just like Vegeta."

"Well, just remember there are fighters even stronger than Vegeta on Namek!" Goku resumed his fighting stance. "If you just accept your limits, we'll never surpass them. Overcome what you thought was possible! We've already improved massively over the last year!"

Raditz grinned. "Heh…maybe a little bit of crazy is what we need right now…" He lunged at Goku, kicking at his head. Goku blocked with his forearm, three punches from his other arm in rapid succession smashing into Raditz's face. I can't believe how strong Kakarot's become¸ he thought as he fended off another barrage of attacks. When I met him, he was barely a quarter of my power, but now he's practically caught up with me! How does he do it?

It took twenty minutes for the brothers to finally run out of energy for real, so—leaving the gravity machine on 20G to try and get used to the setting—they crawled over to the bag of senzu beans and ate one each, feeling instantly renewed and stronger than ever. "Well, I think that went well—" Goku was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice in their heads.

"Hello? Is this Goku and Raditz?"

"Um…yes…" Goku looked over at Raditz, as if to say, are you hearing this too? Raditz nodded. "Who is this?" Goku continued.

"I am King Kai—the one who trained Tien, remember!"

"Oh yeah! Thanks for that, by the way."

"Sure. And I'm about to tell Tien this, but another friend of yours—little bald guy—made it down Snake Way even faster than Tien did! He wants me to train him too."

"Wow, Krillin? That's great!" Goku grinned as he spoke, imagining Krillin getting as strong as Tien.

"What about Piccolo—the Namekian the saiyans killed?" Raditz asked.

"I'm afraid he was sent straight to Hell," King Kai answered. "Kami, on the other hand, heard you were planning on resurrecting him, so instead of going up to Heaven he's been helping King Yemma with the paperwork. Nice guy. So, any news from Namek?"

"Well, it's probably a good thing we're on our way." Goku wasn't sure which direction to look when talking to King Kai's disembodied voice, so he settled for vaguely upwards. "Apparently, there are fighters there even stronger than Vegeta, and they're looking for the Dragon Balls too!"

"Huh?" King Kai paused. "More powerful than Vegeta, you say? There aren't many in the galaxy who are…hold on, let me scan Namek." Another, longer pause followed, and then shortly after came a strangled choking sound. "Goku! Raditz! When you get to Namek, take your friends and leave! Don't try to fight anybody!"

"Huh? What's the matter?"

"F…Frieza is on the planet Namek…you mustn't try to fight him! Nobody can defeat Frieza!"

Raditz nearly jumped out of his skin. "Frieza's there?! Turn this ship around!" He leapt for the controls, but Goku held him back. "I'm not going anywhere near that monster!"

Goku punched Raditz in the face, with enough force to knock him to the floor. "And you call yourself a saiyan!" he growled. "What happened to our 'proud race of warriors'?"

"You don't understand!" Raditz held his head in his hands. "There will be no survivors—Frieza will kill us, and all of your friends, and the entire Namekian race! Frieza…the most terrible being in the universe…I'm sorry, Kakarot, but there's just nothing we can do against him!" He looked up too late, as Goku's foot connected with his forehead, knocking him down through the hatch to the lower floor.

"Come back up when you grow a spine!" Goku told him. "My own brother, trying to run from a fight…" He set the gravity up to 30G, flooring Raditz again just as he was standing up, and resumed training.

Tien landed on the raised plateau, slightly behind Dende. "So this is Guru's place, huh?" He gazed up at the spherical grey building, with the mysterious spikes and bubble-shaped windows common to Namekian architecture. Out of the doorway stepped a tall, broad-shouldered Namek warrior. "Greetings, child. Is the visitor…"

"Here to help," Dende replied enthusiastically. "He and his friends saved me from the invaders today!"

"Very well." The warrior Nail turned to Tien. "If you wish to see Guru, follow me." Dende and Tien walked with him, through the doorway and into the shadow-filled home of Guru.

Well, events on Namek are now well and truly underway. Writing this chapter was a bit difficult, due to the amount of story threads that are all going to come together in a few chapters.

Something happened just today, by the way. Ahem. *Does best Nappa voice* Hey Vegeta, what does the scouter say about the view count?

Vegeta: IT'S OVER 8000!

Uh…not quite the number I was thinking of…but still true, I guess.

Er…over 8001?

No...

7500?

You know what, never mind. Can I have my money back, then?

No.

Thanks for over 9000 views!

Q: Having Zarbon play the role of Vegeta (albeit temporarily) was a nice twist, especially inasmuch as it helped them to get rid of Dodoria. And his wish makes sense. I think you're doing a good job of guiding the story without making arbitrary changes.

And the dialogue between Raditz and Goku was great! I'm really interested to see how high Raditz's power goes when he gets a senzu...

A: I hadn't thought of that (Zarbon playing Vegeta's role). Interesting observation. That of course may make people wonder, what's Vegeta going to do? All in good time.

As for the second thing, I won't put their power levels until they finish training. Mainly because how powerful they are before training isn't important, because they don't do any fighting in that time period.

Q: Hey Entertaining Chapter!

Here is some criticism though. I know you don't like repeating the same battles that we already seen but you abbreviated the first meeting of Frieza waaaay too much. You didn't even mention 3 Nameks showing up. You essentially made it a sentence when you should of made it a short paragraph.

And based on what we see in DBZ while Humans don't get Zenkai, they most definitely improve after a battle that tests them to their limit. So Tien and Yamcha should be a bit stronger then they were in Namek.

And didn't Zarbon always know that they were collecting the Dragonballs to make a wish? Seems to have easily betrayed Frieza, something that he only did before as a last resort.

But on the bright side I like how you made Vegeta go elsewhere.

A: I didn't want to just novelise DBZ. The scene with those Nameks and Frieza would go exactly how it did in-canon. You guys already know who Frieza is. If you don't, why are you reading this?

Okay, fair point about the humans improving. Just read Yamcha's '1480' from last chapter as an approximate '1500'. Maybe Tien improved a bit, but he's still closer to 5000 than to 5500 or 6000. So I'm approximating. For instance, I put Zarbon at 23,000, but it's probably something like 23,086. For all intents and purposes, it's basically 23,000.

Finally, Zarbon knew Frieza wanted to use the Dragon Balls to become immortal. He wasn't aware of the specifics. And what do you mean, 'something that he only did before as a last resort'? He never betrayed Frieza in DBZ, as far as I know.

Q: Liked how Zarbon was the one to kill Dodoria, I can see Zarbon betraying Frieza, after all nearly everyone who works for Frieza does so out of fear rather than respect. Not sure if that's the case with the Ginyu force. Speaking of I know they are most likely going to make an appearance but will the confrontation with the Ginyu force be similar to cannon?

I am greatly enjoying this story so far and I'm guess that Goku will become a Super Saiyan with the death of Raditz or Gohan at the hands of Frieza is the most likely scenario. another one would be Raditz with the death of Goku and/or Gohan though less likely or both Raditz and Goku with the death of Gohan(I would hate you for that but would still read the story cause Gohan would be wished back.)

A: The confrontation with the Ginyu Force…will not be similar to canon. And as for Super Saiyan, I'd love to say 'none of those are right' or 'one of those is completely on the mark' or 'you're half right' or something…but I won't.

Q: Dude, this chapter was by far your best writing. All the dialogue was fantastic and very in character, though I was curious about one phrase..."but Saiyans they're not" said by Tien. Kind of Yoda-ish.

I think you could have afforded to spend a little more time on Zarbon's choice to kill Dodoria, revealing his thoughts perhaps...that's what I would do, except if you feel it would reveal too much. Surely though, this was an on the spot decision.

Anyway, I really like this chapter. Fun and easy to read! Great job!
NPB

A: Thanks to npberryhill, writer of the most excellent Bringer of Death, for the kind words. As for Tien's dialogue, maybe I just know people who speak strangely, and that makes its way into my writing occasionally. And I wanted to make Zarbon a bit more mysterious/less sympathetic at first, given that I was telling the story from the humans' point of view at that point. We had a bit more of an insight into Zarbon's thoughts in this chapter, and I hope that it's evident how driven he is—he'll go to any lengths for his goal.

Q: Zarbon always struck me as an intelligent person, so it seems to me a bit out of character that he really thinks he would be able to use the dragonballs when Frieza wants them. I know he is really font of his beauty and he might hate his other form, but he's more smart than that to betray Frieza for such an futile thing, he should know very well if somehow frieza would find out, he'd be killed in an instant, and since he knows Frieza is no fool aswell, he's really playing with his life.

The Canon Dbz Zarbon would never betray Frieza for such a thing when the risks to pay wether he finds out is so high, He should know he is committing suicide, even when it would work, Zarbon should realize that one way or another Frieza will find out and kill him.

A: I thought this issue might have some criticism (although I've got a few reviews speaking positively about Zarbon's choice—it's just that they're not in the Q&A mostly, what can I say to those other than 'thank you'). Well, I think Zarbon's relying on his plan being, in the words of some action movie or another, 'so insane it might just work'. In this chapter, you can start to see what it is. If everything goes as he plans, there'll be plenty of opportunity for him to get away. If you still disagree and don't think he'd betray Frieza, okay. That's your opinion.