The three warriors flew back to the beach as fast as they could. Kami had managed to pry the door to the hyperbolic time chamber open to warn them as the invaders arrived, and so they wasted no time flying back to the port town. However, as they got closer, they noticed the ship was actually leaving the atmosphere. Had the three humans managed to scare them off? When they landed on the beach, they quickly found that was not the case. Two of them were lying on the ground unconscious, while Yamcha was gripping his broken leg in pain.
"Yamcha, what happened?" Goku said running up to him.
"The gems came early. There were only three of them, but we were no match for them…" he admitted as the others began to stir.
"Then why aren't you dead?" Vegeta asked bluntly.
"Vegeta!" Goku cried.
"No, I mean think about it," Vegeta explained, "These gems come from a very ruthless race. They were most likely bent on destroying us and yet now they're leaving. If by some miracle they thought you were us and they completed their mission, then you should be dead, but you're not. Why?"
"Uh guys?" Goku called, examining something on the beach, "Why is Gohan's hat here?" He picked up the Dragon Ball hat and brushed off some of the sand.
Yamcha swallowed nervously. "Because they dropped it when they took Gohan and Steven..." Yamcha admitted.
The three aliens looked at him in shock. "WHAT?!" Piccolo cried.
"T-they took them both?!" Goku repeated in horror.
Vegeta marched over and picked up Yamcha by his shirt and shook him. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You idiots had one job: keep them safe! We even told you exactly how to do so!" he roared, "How could you have messed that up?! THEY COULD BE DEAD NOW THANKS TO YOU!"
"D-dead?" Goku whispered to himself, staring off. His fists clenched.
"V-Vegeta, we did our best! Honest!" Yamcha started but was silenced as Vegeta punched him in the gut, causing him to be sent flying. Vegeta growled angrily stomping over to the human, a ball of ki forming in his hand. Whatever restraint he had dissipated. Steven, his protege and the last remnant of his dear mentor, might very well be gone forever and it looked like there was nothing he could do about it. They might not even be able to use the Dragon Balls to bring him back due to his gem half. And as far as he was concerned, if he couldn't take his anger out on the boy's attacker, the human who let it happen would suffice. Meanwhile the other Saiyan's rage was building for similar reasons. But instead of losing just one person he cared for, he'd lost two. Goku's fists were shaking as he tried to control himself.
"Vegeta stop!" Piccolo demanded, grabbing his shoulder. The prince turned to glare at him. "They didn't do anything wrong! There's no point in hurting them," the Namekian stated.
"THAT'S BULL-" the prince started.
"They came back on their own!" Tien spoke up as he got up. "We sent them away like you wanted. We even had to force them to leave," he explained, "But at the last second the boys came back on the flying nimbus. There was nothing we could do."
"YOU CAN FLY!" he snapped, turning on the three-eyed man, "You could have grabbed them and gotten out of there, but YOU. DID. NOTHING!" He then lunged at Tien.
"ENOUGH!" Goku shouted. A wave of energy suddenly erupted from him, disrupting the fight. The warriors had to protect their eyes as sand went flying. If they had been able to open them, they would have caught sight of the Saiyan's hair flash gold for half a second. When the wave subsided, Goku huffed slightly, anger and determination clear on his face. The Z fighters uncovered their eyes to look up at Goku, slightly afraid. "There's no time for fighting," he said seriously, "Whether they killed them or not, we have to go after them. We can't let them get away with this!"
"How do we get on their ship?" Piccolo asked, "They're probably out of Earth's atmosphere by now."
"Kami's Lookout might have something that can help us," Goku responded.
…..
Steven's eyes fluttered open. The first things he noticed were that there was a buzzing noise and that his eye hurt. He sat up to find himself in some kind of cell with a force field. Against his better judgement, he tentatively stuck out his hand out to touch the field. When he did, it didn't shock him or anything, but gave him a fuzzy, tingling sensation as the light crawled up his arm.
"Ew!" he exclaimed. Then he got an idea. He pushed his whole body against the force field and fell out of the cell. "I'm out!" he cheered. Suddenly, he heard a high pitched shout. "Gohan!" he cried, running after the noise.
He stopped when he came to another hallway and heard another voice. "Stay still, you pebble!" it snapped. Steven looked around the corner to see Peridot chasing after Gohan. "Grrr! I don't know how you keep getting out, but you will stay in this time or I will report your insolence when we get back to homeworld!" she threatened.
"No! I'm not going anywhere with you!" he shouted as she leaned down to grab him. He jumped into the air and onto her back, causing her to lose balance and fall face first onto the floor.
"GRAAH! Get off me!" she cried, flailing her robotic arms.
Steven had to stifle a snicker at the scene before him. His amusement dissipated as much gruffer voice bellowed down the hall. "What is the Sayian doing outside its cell?" Jasper's voice called. Steven hid as she approached. "I thought I told you to keep it under lock and key," she snapped, roughly grabbing Gohan by his shirt.
"I tried! I even put the destabilization field on its highest setting, but it still kept getting out!" Peridot defended as she got up, "I don't even get why we took them prisoner anyways. It wasn't our mission in the first place."
"Fine, if you're so incompetent, Then I'll just deal with this myself," she growled. She then ripped something out of the wall and leaned inside one of the empty cells. She pinned the struggling half Saiyan down before placing the heavy object on his tail. He squealed before going limp. "There, that should take care of it," she said standing up and turning on the destabilization field. "Now get back to the control room," Jasper said, turning to Peridot, "We need to get these two to Yellow Diamond as soon as possible."
"My Daddy...will stop you!" Gohan spoke up weakly.
Jasper rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever brat. Unless your "Daddy" can survive the void of space, you're not going anywhere," she sneered before walking away. "What's a 'daddy'?" she whispered to Peridot. The green gem simply shrugged as he walked away.
When they disappeared, Steven stepped out of his hiding place. "Steven?" Gohan whispered, trying to raise his head.
The half gem smiled and nodded, holding a finger up to his mouth. "I'm gonna get you out of there, hold on!" he whispered. He pressed his hands against the field, however this time it wasn't a tingling feeling he felt, but and itchy and slightly burning feeling. "Ow!" he whispered, "What's the deal with this one?"
"The put it on a higher setting cause I kept getting out…" Gohan explained.
Steven nodded and tried again, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation until he could grab Gohan and drag him out. As he did so, the boy's tail slipped out from under the block from the ship's wall. Once it had, Gohan was able to jump up and dust himself off.
"Thanks Steven!" the little boy said before hugging him. He took a step back and noticed the half gem's black eye. "Steven, are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, they just knocked me out. What about you?" he responded.
"I'm fine. My tail hurts though…" the half Saiyan commented, "We need to find a way off this place. I think the big orange one might be right and Daddy and the others might not be able to come for us…"
"An escape pod!" Steven exclaimed, "They always have them in the movies. We can steal one of their pods and get back to Earth."
Gohan smiled and nodded. "Good idea!" he said, "Let's go!" With that, the two boys snuck down the hallway. They searched high and low, but there were no escape pods to be found. However, they came across something else. "Lapis!" the two boys cried as they spotted the blue figure behind one of the destabilizer barriers. She turned and looked at them in surprise before a wide smile crossed her face.
"Oh thank goodness you two are ok! I thought Jasper was going to shatter you for sure!" she cried, relieved.
"Don't worry, we're fine," Gohan assured.
"Wait, why are they letting you out?" she questioned, "You are prisoners here, right?"
"We escaped!" Steven exclaimed.
"And we can get you out too," Gohan said, stretching his arms out, "Just watch!"
"No!" Lapis cried in fear, "You need to get back to your cells now!"
The two boys looked at her in confusion. "But Lapis…" Steven said, "Don't you want to be free?"
"Yes but it isn't worth it if you're just going to get into more trouble! Steven, Gohan, you have no idea how bad this situation is right now. If you just go back now, they might go easy on you," she explained, "Right now it's better to be safe than free."
"That's no kind of life!" Gohan exclaimed, "Mr. Vegeta always says that it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
"Then he's a bigger idiot than I thought!" Lapis retorted.
"Come on Lapis," Steven urged, "All we have to do is find an escape pod and get out of here! Everything will be fine after that!"
"Until they come back for us that is!" she replied, "Steven, it's no use. No matter what we do, we're trapped. The best option now is to play it safe."
Steven was about to respond, when they heard Jasper's voice down the hall. "ROSE QUARTZ! WHERE IS SHE?!" she bellowed.
"You two need to get out of here! Now!" Lapis warned, "Don't let her catch you!"
The two nodded as they headed off down the hall. "We'll come back for you, ok?" Steven said over his shoulder.
….
The three aliens landed on the emerald ship as the flashing lights died away. "It's been so long since I used the teleportation room that I had almost forgotten it existed," Goku commented.
"Good thing we weren't out of range for it yet," Piccolo observed, "Though I'm betting we are now, so that means we need someone to man the controls and turn this thing around. Vegeta, you look for the control room while Goku and I will look for the kids."
"Why me?" he asked.
"Because you're the only one out of the three of us that has ever flown a space ship," Piccolo stated bluntly. Vegeta grumbled but nodded. "Good," Piccolo affirmed. With that the three of them headed off into different directions.
Vegeta ran down the hall. To be honest the last thing he wanted to be was designated driver. He was still furious, and really wanted to knock some heads. As he cut through a circular room, he was stopped by the sight of a tall orange gem standing before him.
"What the-" she started in surprise, "Another one? How many more of you Saiyans are there? What, did the whole race just pick up and move to this backwater planet before your own blew up?"
Vegeta smirked. "No but this planet does seem to attract what little there is left of us," he stated, "and, apparently, carbon copy grunts like yourself."
Jasper growled at him before summoning her weapon and leaped at him. Vegeta managed to jump out of the way just as she smashed the ground where he had been standing. "Who do you think you are, talking to me like that? You may be a Saiyan but you're still nothing more than a flea bitten bag of meat!" she snarled.
"Oh I am so much more that that," he stated with a slight chuckle. "I am Vegeta. Prince of all Saiyans. Pupil to Rose Quartz and defender of the Earth," he proclaimed. "And you my friend," he said before darting forward and punching her in the gut and sending her flying across the room, "Have royally pissed me off."
Jasper picked herself up, practically seething. "If you think you scare me, then you've got another thing coming," she warned, "Before the pact between The Colds and the Gem Empire was formed, I had the pleasure of facing many of your kind in battle, and let me tell you, I'm going to enjoy crushing you as much as I did them!"
"Well then," Vegeta started, still smirking darkly. He then seemingly disappeared. Jasper looked around wildly for him until she was suddenly hit in the back of the head with a roundhouse kick. Vegeta landed in a fighting stance, a vengeful smile clear on his face. "Go ahead and try and hit me if you're able," he sneered as the gem got up.
….
Piccolo ran through the halls in search of the children. He could sense their ki, but this place was like a labyrinth. It was near impossible to pinpoint their exact location. They seemed to be moving, so they must have escaped some how. He just hoped they weren't in too much trouble. As he rounded a corner, he felt their signatures getting closer. Hopefully he would run into them soon.
He ran down a hallway as fast as he could. So fast infact, that he almost didn't stop himself from ramming into another green alien. He skidded to a halt as Peridot looked up from her screen. Both of them stared at each other wide-eyed for a moment in an awkward silence.
"Ummm….hi?" he finally said.
The bewildered gem took one step back, then another. "J-Jaaaaaspeeeeer!" she shouted as she turned and ran. Piccolo sighed. He hated having to do this. He threw up his arms and the quickly stretched away from his body, and snatching the gem up. She squeaked in surprise as she was suddenly pulled backwards as his arms retracted. She squirmed against his grip. "Let go of me!" she cried.
"Sorry, but I can't have you squealing to your higher ups," Piccolo stated, unapologetically, "So for now, you're just gonna have to tag along with me." He then continued on down the hallway, hoping the others were having better luck than him.
….
As fate would have it, Goku was having a lot more luck. As he turned the corner, he found the the two boys skidding to a halt. "Gohan! Steven!" he cried scooping them up in a hug, "I was so worried about you two!"
"Daddy!" Gohan cheered.
"I'd knew you guys would come!" Steven exclaimed, "How'd you get on board?"
"Kami has a teleportation room in the lookout," he explained, "Now come on, we need to find Piccolo and get to the control room. With that, they raced off. As they crossed down corridors, they took a sharp turn left bringing them face to face with the Namekian. "Well we got the first thing on our to do list done quickly," Goku observed, "How are you doing Piccolo? It looks like you made a friend."
Peridot hissed at him from her place underneath Piccolo's arm. "Come on, there's no time to lose," the Namekian stated, "Let's get to the control room and meet up with Vegeta." With that, the Z warriors and the children raced off.
The door to the control room slid open, to reveal emptiness. "He's not here yet?" Piccolo questioned, "What it he doing? he was supposed to go straight here!"
"Maybe he ran into Jasper," Steven suggested.
"Who?" Goku asked.
"My escort!" Peridot said proudly, "You Clods are going to be in deep trouble when she's finished with you friend!"
"I doubt that," Piccolo stated, "Well, since Vegeta's not here, we better at least try to figure this out on our own." He then handed Peridot over to Goku. "Here," he said, "I'll figure out the controls. You keep her from escaping." Goku saluted the Namekian as he held the squirming green gem. Piccolo walked up to the controls and placed his hands on it. Information suddenly started flooding through his brain as he took control of the ship.
…..
Jasper rammed Vegeta though the floor into the power core room. Once he hit the ground, he kicked her in the stomach, flinging her off. "Nice one," he said, getting up and wiping his mouth, "But if you think that'll stop me then you better think again."
"I'm just getting warmed up, ape!" she hissed as she got to her feet. She summoned her weapon again and rushed at him head first. Vegeta stopped her helm with his hand. Jasper grinned maliciously as she took the opportunity to grab his tail from around his waist. Vegeta became paralyzed for a moment and Jasper punched him in the gut before flinging him across the room and into a wall.
Vegeta groaned as he sat in the rubble. Jasper smirked as she walked over to him. "What say you now, Saiyan?" she chuckled, "What? No insult? No witty retort? Any last words at all?"
"Yeah," he said, stumbling to his feet, "I'm done playing games." He stuck out his hand and Jasper looked at him in confusion.
"Galic…." Vegeta shouted, gathering as much energy as he possibly could. If this attack couldn't wipe her out, then nothing would. "GUUUUUUN!" he roared as he fired the purple beam of light. Jasper's eyes widened and she barely had a moment to react before the blast blew straight through her chest and into the power core. She immediately retreated into her gem which fell to the ground with a clink.
Vegeta walked over to it, ready to crush it beneath his boot, when an explosion suddenly came from the core. "Damnit! No time for this," he hissed, "I need to get to the control room." With that, he raced off leaving the gem behind.
….
The explosion shook the whole ship. "Woah!" Goku shouted as he stumbled, accidentally letting go of Peridot. The gem crawled away as fast as she could. "Hey! Get back here!" Goku cried.
Suddenly, the gem face planted, and she was enveloped in a green sphere. Said sphere was then sucked into the floor and shot out to the earth below.
"Well I guess that's one more thing to worry about…" Goku muttered.
"What about Vegeta? Where is he?" Steven cried.
No sooner had the child spoken, did the Saiyan Prince stumble through the door. "Vegeta! You're ok!" Steven shouted, running up to him and hugging him, "What happened to you?"
"I had a run in with the angry orange giant," Vegeta explained, "But nevermind that now. We need to get out of here. The powercore exploded and the ship is going down."
"But what about Lapis?" Gohan asked.
"There's no time for that!" he snapped, "Steven, form a bubble! Now!" The boy did as he was commanded as they plummeted to the earth below.
….
Once they had been freed from their rubble prison by the ever trusty Lion, they had all breathed a sigh of relief. That relief didn't last long, however, as a particular mound of rubble glowed before Jasper emerged out of it.
"I knew I should have smashed her when I had the chance…" Vegeta growled.
"You…" she spat at them as she stumbled forward, "You think you've won?!"
"I destroyed your physical form," Vegeta stated bluntly, "You are currently limping, and now there are three of us for you to face. There is no way for you to defeat us."
"We'll see about that!" she hissed, "I'll...I'll…"
Suddenly, Lapis emerged from the rubble, attempting to fly away. Gohan and Steven smiled, excited that their friend was alright, but those smiles faded as she was plucked out of the air by Jasper.
"No! Let her go!" Steven demanded. Goku had to hold him back.
"Lapis listen," Jasper said as she held onto the blue gem, "Fuse with me!"
"What?!" Lapis cried in surprise. Jasper dropped her.
"No Lapis, don't do it!" Gohan pleaded, "We're your friends!"
"They kept you trapped for thousands of years! They tried to kill you when you escaped, and just now they left you for dead when the ship went down," Jasper argued.
"Don't listen to her!" Steven shouted.
"She's just using you Lapis," Piccolo chimed in, "If you go with her, she's just going to treat you like a tool."
"Lapis, look at them," Jasper pointed, "They aren't even your kind. What good will allying yourself with them do compared to the entire gem empire. If you help me now, you might even fall back into the diamonds' favor."
She seemed to contemplate this for a second before she turned to Jasper and offered her hand to her. "No!" the boys cried in betrayal as they watched the pair dace. The Z fighters prepared themselves for battle, but when the giant monster formed, Lapis suddenly turned the tables and began dragging them both to the bottom of the ocean.
"Let's stay on this miserable planet together...forever!" Lapis cried through Malachite's voice as the disappeared below the surface.
The five aliens on the beach just stared on in shock. "Well…that was...dramatic…" Piccolo noted.
"Is it bad if I feel bad for the orange one?" Goku asked.
"Yes," Vegeta stated bluntly.
A few moments of silence passed. The only sound was the crashing of the waves and the crackle of the fire from the wreckage. "Sooo…." Goku spoke up, "Do you guys want to go after them or Peridot first?"
Suddenly Steven's phone rang. He picked it up to show Connie's phone number. "I think we're going to have to deal with that before anything else…" Piccolo commented.
….
A signal beeped on the screen of the space pod as it detected another explosion of power. Radditz frowned at it and thought. It wasn't as high as the astronomical one he had managed to clock in for a fraction of a second, but was long lasting enough to pinpoint the location of. As he tracked it back, his eyes grew wide as he recognized the solar system where it had come from: the same one where Prince Vegeta had disappeared all those years ago.
The odds were a million to one that he actually managed to survive...but a power level like that certainly gave him hope. "Let's see who you belong too…" Radditz muttered to himself as he set the coordinates and turned his pod off of standby mode. Even if it wasn't the prince, at least he might find a good challenge on that planet. The thrusters kicked in and the pod zipped through the void of space.
Aaaaand this took way longer than I thought it would. Hurray! finally finished this story arc! BTW did you know that today marks the 30th anniversary of when Dragon Ball first aired on TV? Thought I'd have this ready for today as celebration. Anyways, I hope you guys liked this! Let me know what you think!