Vegeta felt his bones heal, the scrapes disappear and the bruises fade. A gurgle told him they were beginning to drain the liquid. At any moment he could strike.
A hiss. The chamber was opened. Before the lid moved at all, he released his energy and blew the tank from the inside. Shards of glass and metal flew in all directions, drilling into the walls and into the bodies of the people present.
Vegeta climbed out of the destroyed tank. Water ran down his body. Examining, he tensed the muscles in his arms and legs. No pain. No injuries. He felt inside himself and felt his strength. His power had increased. He smiled wistfully to himself. Now he would show these idiots who was the strongest.
Vegeta took a towel from one of the cupboards lined up against the wall, dried himself and put on a uniform. It felt good to have clean and complete clothes on again. He put on the second glove and let his eyes wander over the two dead. Perhaps he should not have destroyed the chamber so sweepingly. Then he could have asked one of the two morons where Frieza had hidden the Dragonballs.
No matter. It didn't help. Vegeta walked to the door of the room and opened it with the push of a button. Cautiously, he peered around the corner into the hallway. No-one to be seen. He sensed no energies nearby. Slowly, he walked down the corridor to the right. The next room was empty. The second room was also empty.
As he continued along the corridor that followed the curve of the spaceship, Vegeta thought feverishly about where the Dragonballs might be hidden. If he couldn't find them in the spaceship, they could be anywhere. Frieza didn't seem to be around either.
The next room Vegeta reached was the bridge. And there they were. Five orbs lay on the ground. The only question that remained was how he could get them out of here. He thought for a moment, then leapt forward, firing a beam of energy into the passageway while simultaneously throwing an energy ball at the dome of the bridge with his other hand.
He heard the clatter of feet, felt several soldiers moving in the direction of the energy beam. Away from him. His diversion had worked. He wasted no time, grabbing one Dragonball after another and throwing them through the hole in the ceiling as far away from the spaceship as possible. No sooner had he sent the second last Dragonball on its way than he clamped the fifth Dragonball under his arm, jumped up and flew after the balls.
Almost simultaneously, he landed many miles away from Frieza's spaceship with the ball he had thrown last. "Well, that's not going so badly," he muttered to himself. With the ball he had sunk in the lake, he already had six of the Dragonballs together. So there was only one more to go.
Vegeta closed his eyes and allowed himself a short break. He was so close to his goal. Now nothing could go wrong.
In his mind's eye he saw the image of his home planet flash before him. Was it really eternal life he wanted or should he rather resurrect his planet? His closest confidants were all dead or almost certainly dead. He and Kakarot and his son were now the only people with Saiyan blood flowing in them. It would be a shame to let them perish.
Vegeta sighed. No time for sentimental thoughts. He could still decide what to do when he had all the orbs together.
It was then that he felt an energy and looked up. It was the bald man from Earth. And he was holding a Dragonball in his hand. Vegeta grinned. His lucky streak continued. He followed the guy, who after a short while landed in front of a cave. Vegeta landed right next to him. The smaller guy turned around, startled, but couldn't react further because a scream distracted him.
Only now did Vegeta notice that someone else was standing at the cave entrance. A young woman with big blue eyes. The most striking thing about her was her blue hair, which went just to her shoulder.
"Krillin, is that ...?"
"...Vegeta," the bald man confirmed with a scowl. Protectively, he stood in front of the woman.
"You didn't tell me he was so handsome," the woman said quietly to the other, but loud enough for Vegeta to hear. Was this woman not afraid of him at all?
Krillin also looked at the woman in irritation.
"Give me the Dragonball and no one will get hurt," Vegeta demanded before they both forgot he was standing next to them.
"No way!" protested Krillin vehemently.
Vegeta took a step towards the two, but then he was distracted by an incoming energy and looked up. Zarbon. Damn! Had his lucky streak ended here again?
Elegantly, Zarbon landed. "How convenient. There I found Vegeta and even another Dragonball. Lord Frieza will be thrilled."
"Who is that? I certainly wouldn't push him out of my sandbox." The woman must be out of her mind. Couldn't she feel Zarbon's energy?
"This guy is even worse than Vegeta," Krillin enlightened her. The woman seemed unconvinced and smiled coquettishly at Zarbon. "Bulma! Gohan and I saw him kill Namekians without hesitation!"
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "I'll get Mister Tights off your backs in exchange for you giving me the Dragonball."
The bald man hesitated, then nodded.
"Vegeta, haven't you had enough from last time?" asked Zarbon from above.
Vegeta got into a fighting stance. "You should never mess with a Saiyan, Zarbon! Go on, transform!"
Zarbon hesitated. Surely he was of the firm belief that transformation was not necessary. But Vegeta was going to show Zarbon up. He would pay for what he had done to him. Then Zarbon sighed and transformed. The woman let out a suppressed scream. Apparently she was not so fond of Zarbon now. Against his will, Vegeta had to smirk.
He sprang forward and rammed his fist into Zarbon's stomach before he could react. Groaning, the green-haired man slumped.
"Well, who's the strongest now?" sneered Vegeta.
Slowly, Zarbon raised his head and looked at him with a face contorted in pain. "Vegeta, my friend, won't we work together? Two of us stand a chance against Frieza."
"You disgust me, you whiner!" Without further words, he held his palm right in front of Zarbon's face. A beam of energy released and struck the defeated man in the middle of the face. His head was blasted. Blood and brain matter scattered behind him. Blood pulsed from the neck stump and flowed down the greenish body. For a moment the body did not move, then it toppled forward and came to rest directly at Vegeta's feet.
With a disgusted look on his face, Vegeta turned away. The bald man looked angry. The woman stared at him with eyes wide with shock. He held out his hand.
"Give me the Dragonball!"
"Only if you pull away without hurting us."
Vegeta considered for a moment. Surely the two of them could not be dangerous to him. "I promise!" he said between clenched teeth. "Now, give me that thing!"
Hesitantly, Krillin handed him the orb. Vegeta clamped the Dragonball under his arm and flew off. Hopefully he would never encounter the two of them again.
After a few miles, Vegeta sensed a source of energy again. Was this one of Frieza's henchmen? Slowly he reduced his speed and flew lower. Wasn't the village near here where he had found the Dragonball with the four stars?
Vegeta followed the energy signature and finally found its origin. It was Kakarot's son. The boy had grown stronger, no question. But when he had left Earth, he had also been very badly injured. As a Saiyan, he drew his strength from that.
Vegeta landed in front of the boy, who looked up frightened. Then he noticed the Dragonball. "What did you do to Krillin, you scumbag?"
"Calm down, the baldy and the hag are fine." The boy exhaled in relief, then looked back up at Vegeta. His eyes flashed angrily. He knew he didn't stand a chance against him and was feverishly thinking of what to do about Vegeta. "Is Kakarot here too?"
"You mean my father? No, he's not here."
Vegeta took a step closer and placed his free hand on the boy's head. "That's too bad, really." He paused for a moment. Briefly, he thought of what it would be like to have a son to train with, to teach everything he had already learned. It was an idea that had never occurred to him before. "Remember, boy. We're the last Saiyans. The last three." Then he placed his hand on Gohan's cheek. The boy seemed torn between amazement and suspicion. Then Vegeta grabbed the boy by the neck, jerked him towards him and rammed his right knee into Gohan's stomach. Groaning, the boy went down.
"Don't get in my way, understand?" With a leap, Vegeta catapulted himself into the air and flew away. He left the little boy groaning on the ground.
Vegeta arrived at the village where he had dumped the Dragonball in the lake. He dived, searched the bottom and resurfaced empty-handed. He repeated the dive several times until he had to admit to himself that he had been the fool. The boy had been here and had already taken the Dragonball. Vegeta cried out angrily. As quickly as possible he took the dragonball to his other five balls and flew back to the cave where he had met the bald man and the woman.
They were no longer there. He felt for their auras with all his senses, but they were suppressing them. Frustrated, he realised that he had rejoiced too soon. He returned to the hiding place of his Dragonballs. He needed to rethink the situation. Restlessly, he paced back and forth, tapping his thumbnail against his front teeth. He sat down, but jumped up restlessly again after a short while. He searched for the auras of the bald-headed one and Kakarot's son. They had the last Dragonball. He absolutely had to find it before Frieza did.
"Hey, Goku!"
Goku, who had his feet tied to a rope and was hanging upside down from the ceiling of the spaceship, did not pause in his exercise of repeatedly pulling his upper body to a horizontal position when Sitara addressed him. He only grunted briefly to show he heard her.
"I'm going to lie down."
"Okay," Goku pressed out with effort between clenched teeth clenched. Sitara waited for two more exercises, then jumped through the small hatch in the floor of the training and control room into the lower part of the spaceship. She stopped at the large refrigerator, took out a can of drink, emptied it in one go and then lay down on the bed, which was not far from the refrigerator. She knew that the gravity in the spaceship was still at 50G. By now she didn't mind the increased gravity. She was curious to see how her body would react when they switched off the gravity again.
It wouldn't be long before they landed on Namek. She could hardly wait to get out of this cramped spaceship. In the last few years in the forest and on the plains, she had learned to love the vastness. No walls as far as she could see. And she could fly. Flying through space for days on end in a small room didn't exactly contribute to her well-being. But she kept reminding herself why she had taken this journey. To see Piccolo again.
Sitara stretched and then rolled onto her side. Many hours of training she had done with Goku and now she had to give her body a little rest. She closed her eyes and felt the strained muscles relax and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
The vibration of the bed brought her up from her sleep. Disoriented, she looked around and took a moment to realise that she was still in the spaceship with Goku. Not just the bed, the whole ship was vibrating. What had happened?
A new vibration made the bed shake. She clenched her fingers into the bedspread, well aware that the blanket could not protect her. When the vibration died down, she got up and went to the narrow metal staircase leading to the upper part of the ship. She called Goku's name to see if he was all right.
"Sitara!" A brief sense of relief spread. Goku seemed to be fine. As quickly as possible, she wanted to run up the stairs. As she reached the third step, the ship vibrated again and she was jerked down. Her body suddenly seemed so much heavier that she could no longer keep her upper body up. She tried to stretch out her arms to break the fall, but even her arms were heavy as lead. The steps came closer and without her being able to do anything, she banged her temple on the edge of a step. She was still aware of the metal of the step feeling cold under her head, then everything went black.
Goku swung back and forth on the rope from the ceiling with each shake of the spaceship. He could not move. His arms were drooping because he was unable to lift them. With all his strength he tried to pull himself up to reach the knot of the rope.
As if gravity had now disappeared again, he suddenly slammed into the ceiling with momentum and was immediately pulled down again. What was going on here? He twisted his head so that he could look down at the control console mounted centrally in the spaceship. Many of the buttons were glaring, he heard an irregular beeping but could not place it.
"Goku?" Confused, Goku looked around as far as he could. A screen had moved out of the pillar in the middle of the spaceship. Goku, in order to see it fully, had to twist very far. On the screen were Dr Brief, Oolong and Puar. Goku wanted to say something, but even pulling his jaw muscles apart was barely possible.
Dr Brief seemed to notice that Goku was unable to express himself. "Goku, pay attention. The spaceship has flown into a magnetic field. The gravity control is unstable. You must shut them down as long as you fly through the magnetic field."
"That's proving difficult right now," Goku uttered with supreme effort.
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't interfere with the controls from here. You'll be flying through the magnetic field for another hour or so."
Goku made a grunting sound and tried to stand up again. The attempt was unsuccessful. He briefly felt relief as gravity lowered, but the moment remained too short to untie the rope's knot.
Swinging wildly back and forth, he feverishly considered how to escape from this predicament. Resolutely, he placed his arched palms together at his side and gathered his energy for a Kamehameha.
Dr Brief, who was following Goku's movements via the monitor, cried out. The energy beam of the Kamehameha flew past the monitor, around the pillar of the spaceship and shot towards Goku. Goku concentrated on directing the beam, but the changing gravity threw a wrench in his plans. Instead of the rope, the Kamehameha hit Goku directly.
Worn out from training and now injured by his own energy beam, Goku hung down breathing heavily. He would not give up. Somehow he had to get free of this rope and turn off the gravitational control. Goku took several deep breaths in and out and then began to consciously swing himself back and forth. He would make this rope snap.
"Goku, don't! I designed the rope so it can't break!" Dr Brief was visibly nervous. Oolong and Puar also looked crestfallen. Goku was not fazed and continued to pursue his plan. Higher and higher he swung back and forth, increasing the pull on the rope with each pass. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the monitor Dr Brief had been talking to him on had gone black.
He continued to concentrate on what he was doing and the unbelievable happened. The rope snapped. With full force, Goku slammed to the floor of the ship and lay moaning. He then crawled on all fours to the control panel and managed to put his right index finger on the button to switch off the gravity control.
Suddenly the pressure on his body was released and Goku breathed a sigh of relief.
Piccolo had sat down with his back to the tree next to King Kai's house, his arms folded and seething with anger. This was not training. This was complete nonsense. And this was supposed to be one of the most powerful fighters far and wide? He wondered if he should leave the planet and continue training alone. He would probably achieve much more than twiddling his thumbs here.
He was about to stand up when, as if struck by lightning, he stopped in mid-motion. Sitara! Something had happened to her. He didn't know how he knew, because the energy bond between them had been destroyed, but it felt so strange. A tugging in his chest. A twinge. He didn't know what had happened, he just knew she wasn't well. He ran to King Kai who was standing in front of his house watching the other fighters practising.
"King Kai. I need to talk to Goku!"
King Kai looked up at the green one. "I will not be spoken to in that commanding tone," the King said dryly and turned away.
Piccolo clenched his fists in anger and bared his teeth. He had to control himself not to kick the little fat man. "Please," he squeezed out between clenched teeth.
"Why?"
Piccolo's self-control was stretched to breaking point. If the King wasn't his only way of making contact with Goku, he would have punched him by now.
"Sitara. Something must have happened to her."
King Kai's mouth widened into a surprised oh sound. Quickly, the little one turned around. "Put your hand on my shoulder."
Piccolo immediately complied with the request. He waited until King Kai had located Goku in the vastness of space and then began to speak.
Every muscle and bone in Goku's body ached or seemed to burn. He pushed himself forward on his stomach and worked his way up to the pilot's seat. After each forward pull, he had to pause to regain his strength. He had covered about half the distance when he heard a voice.
"Goku, can you hear me?"
"Piccolo, is that you?"
"Yes, that's right. What happened? Where is Sitara?"
"We flew into a magnetic field and the gravity control went crazy. The spaceship was shaken up pretty good. I was hanging from a rope and ..."
"Where's Sitara?" Piccolo interrupted him. His voice sounded sharp.
"I don't know. I don't see her. Earlier she wanted to lie down and sleep. I must take a Senzu Bean." Goku continued to pull himself forward.
"Hurry up. I need to know what's wrong with her."
Grumbling at Piccolo's impatience, Goku crawled on. At last he had reached the seat and fingered one of the magic beans from the small brown pouch. He put it in his mouth, chewed it with relish, swallowed and only a few seconds later felt the pain disappear and the bruises healed. Relieved, Goku stretched out on the floor and considered just sleeping here for a while, when Piccolo's voice snapped him out of his thoughts again.
"Go check on Sitara!" Not wanting to test Piccolo's patience, Goku jumped up and ran to the stairs. He jumped down two steps and looked down.
"Oh no," it escaped him.
"What is it?"
"It looks like she fell. Wait." Goku walked down the stairs and then knelt beside Sitara. She was lying on her back at the foot of the stairs. Her left arm was under her body, her right arm extended upwards. Her right leg was bent, her gi had a tear at the knee and the skin underneath was scraped up. Bending down, Goku noticed more bruises, but at first glance they did not seem threatening.
He turned his head and brought his ear very close to her mouth. He heard and felt her breathing. As a precaution, he put two fingers to her throat and felt her pulse. Regularly. Carefully, he turned her head and then sucked in a sharp breath. Goku cursed softly.
"Goku, what's wrong with her?" Was there fear in Piccolo's voice?
"She must have fallen when the gravity suddenly changed. She hit her head and is bleeding from the temple." Silence struck Goku. Silence laced with fear and panic.
King Kai sensed Piccolo's worry. The Namekian seemed paralysed. King Kai now spoke up. "Goku, lay her on the bed and tend to her wound. Then grind a Senzu Bean and put the powder in water. You must give her to drink carefully. The healing effect of the bean is not so good when dissolved in water, but still it will help her." Piccolo gave King Kai's shoulder a quick squeeze, thanking him in this way for his spirited intervention.
Goku lifted Sitara and laid her on the bed. He carefully cleaned the now no longer bleeding wound on her head and stuck a plaster on it. Then he prepared the potion as King Kai had described it to him. He poured two small sips for Sitara and massaged her throat. She swallowed. The reflex was there. He felt across the distance Piccolo breathe a sigh of relief.
"Piccolo, I promise you I will check on her regularly," he addressed Piccolo.
"Thank you, Goku." With that, the connection broke.
Goku felt a leaden tiredness wash over him. He quickly ate some more and then dropped onto the bed next to Sitara. Before drifting off into a dreamless sleep, he thought of Chi-Chi. He would like to have her next to him now.
After a few hours of sleep, Goku felt refreshed. He stretched extensively and stood up. Sitara's condition seemed unchanged. Her breathing and pulse were fine, but she did not wake up. He gave her a few sips of the water with the Senzu Bean powder again and went back to the upper area of the spaceship after eating.
He wanted to continue his training and set the gravity to 100 G. For a short time he had to fight against the new weight, but due to the interlude with the magnetic field his body got used to the new load surprisingly quickly.
He trained for hours. He did not take a break. He kept reminding himself that Gohan was waiting for him on Namek and that there was someone there who was supposedly the strongest in the whole universe. He had to defeat him. He had to find the Dragonballs to bring his friends back to life. He was sure that he would be able to accomplish all these tasks.
To finish his training, he fired a Kamehameha and aimed it at himself. He braced himself against the impact. The energy that hit him was so great that he was thrown back and hit the ground. Breathing heavily, he lay there for a moment. Then he smiled.
"That was close," he said to himself. With difficulty he turned onto his stomach and crawled to the control panel of the spaceship. Inch by inch he worked his way until he finally reached the small brown bag containing the magic beans. With trembling fingers he lifted the bag and shook out a bean. He pushed it between his teeth, chewed and swallowed. Instantly his strength returned.
Goku straightened up. He felt the strength in every muscle. He had his fighting strength, the one he had trained with King Kai, back. Not only regained it. He had even surpassed it. He looked at his right arm and flexed his muscles. A satisfying feeling.
He looked at one of the readouts on the control console. Only a few more hours until they should reach the planet Namek. He checked the bag of magic beans. A handful of beans was still there. One more training session he would put in.
Goku caused several balls of energy to appear, floating around the room. They sped uncontrollably towards him, changing direction or splitting. Like a dancer, he dodged them again and again, ducked, jumped up, performed rolls to avoid being scorched. Then suddenly he stopped and all the bullets hit him at once.
Smoke rose from his body. He had countless scrapes and cuts, in some places his skin was burnt. The top of his battle suit was only hanging on him in strips. Again Goku breathed heavily. But this time he remained upright. He grinned. It felt good, more than good.
Goku turned off the gravity and looked around. Inside the spaceship, there were clear signs of his training. The tiles that lined the walls were cracked. Pieces had broken out in several places. Goku picked up a particularly large piece of tile and ground it to dust in his hand. He felt stronger than ever. He was ready.
Another Senzu Bean went into his mouth. Goku stretched, then looked at the clock. Enough time remained for him to eat and then sleep before landing. He jumped to the lower level of the spaceship without taking the diversions via the stairs.
Sitara's condition had not changed. How Goku would have loved to tell her about his training success. Even more he would have liked to continue training with her. Training with her had done him good. He had learned a lot from King Kai and had become stronger, but he had only trained alone. He could not compete with others. He had missed that. If he really was a Saiyan, someone born to fight, and if that was true of Sitara as well, then it was no wonder that only fighting filled him with so much happiness.
The fridge was not as well stocked as it had been at the beginning of his journey, but he still found enough edibles to fill his stomach. He sat on the edge of the bed and watched Sitara while he ate. He hoped she would wake up soon, or that they would find someone on Namek who could help her.
"Goku?" He winced. Piccolo's voice was in his head. "How is Sitara?"
"Unchanged. I've been giving her something to drink periodically. She's gulping it down and I don't see any wounds, but she hasn't woken up again."
There was silence on the other side and Goku was beginning to wonder if Piccolo had broken the connection again. "Take good care of her, will you?"
"Of course. You have my word on that, Piccolo." Goku thought he perceived a grateful nod, then heard nothing more.
He gave Sitara a few more sips of the water with the Senzu Bean powder in it, then stretched out beside her on the bed. Not long now and he would be on Namek.
Hours passed. There, weren't those two? Two auras flying at a great distance. It had to be them. Vegeta tucked one of the Dragonballs under his arm and flew towards them.
The landscape whizzed along beneath Vegeta as he flew as fast as he could after the two. Had they stopped? Indeed they had. They hovered a few yards above the ground and seemed to be discussing with each other.
As Vegeta got closer, Kakarot's son flew on and the bald man got in his way.
"This is as far as you go!"
Vegeta twisted the corners of his mouth into a disparaging grin. "You know damn well you don't stand a chance against me, baldy." Krillin swallowed, but didn't dodge. "We don't have time for this crap!" He pushed Krillin aside and flew past him in the direction the boy had taken.
That energy! It was coming from the house that stood on a narrow rocky outcrop a mile high in the sky. It had to be Kakarot. Vegeta sped up his flight the last few yards and landed at the entrance of the house.
A tall Namekian stepped outside and stood in front of Vegeta. He wore a long dark blue waistcoat that flapped back and forth in the sharp wind.
"You have no right to enter here," he said in a low voice.
"There is Kakarot in there. I want to see him!"
The Namekian took a breath to reply, but he got no further. Gohan stepped onto the platform outside.
Vegeta stared at him in shock. "You're giving off that energy?!" For a moment he didn't know what to say either. The boy also looked at him in shock. An uncomfortable silence ensued, which only dissipated when the bald man landed on the platform. The Namekian looked at the two earthlings.
"There are great energies coming to the planet. You must find the Dragonballs!"
"How many energies?" wanted Vegeta to know.
"Five."
"Damn!" Vegeta clenched his fists. Questioningly, the others looked at him. "That can only be the Ginyu Force. Frieza's special ops team. Every one of them is at least as strong as me."
Krillin and Gohan looked frightened. The boy turned to his friend. "What do we do now?"
"You give me the Dragonballs and I wish for eternal life. That way I can defeat the Ginyu Force and Frieza."
The two earthlings communicated silently. Then the boy nodded slowly. Vegeta triumphed inwardly. His goal was within reach. They said a curt goodbye to the warrior Namekian and flew away from the rocky outcrop.
"Come on, fly as fast as you can! There's no time to lose," Vegeta said to the other two.
"By the way, the Dragonballs can grant three wishes. And take care of yourselves!" the Namekian called after them.
Three wishes? So he didn't even have to decide which wish to grant. He could have eternal life and resurrect Planet Vegeta and bring back his loved ones. He would no longer be alone.
Dear Reader!
I wish you a happy new year! This is my first chapter, which I am publishing in the year 2022. It has become quite long. Over the holidays I received some lovely messages and reviews. Thank you very much! It made me very happy and motivates me to keep writing.
Best regards
Yours, Jessica