Back to our regularly scheduled plot, hope y'all enjoyed the bonus chapter. If I have any other purely POV chapters they'll probably also just be Bonus chapters unless I get behind in writing

frankieu: le thank

thewittywhy: yeah I do agree that his dumbness is pretty exaggerated sometimes.

Qinlongfei: yeah, stupid was definitely the wrong word to use there. And I so quite like your analysis there.

Shadowj6480: Thanks ^.^ and yeah, Nappa has lived under Frieza for over 25 years and is well and old enough to remember what life was like before Frieza, or at least, before Frieza was his direct higher up. For Vegeta, he'd only have vague memories of Planet Vegeta before its destruction. Living under Frieza is just about all he knows

xavex: no revenge schemes here, I'm afraid

Shadowj6480: If you're just going off the Bardock movie, yes that would be the case. However, in one flashback that was, I believe, during the Namek Saga, one soldier did report a Sayain uprising, which would, assumably, be Bardock, which Nappa would have been privy to.
It's been a while since I've watched that scene however so the details might be off.

"Hey! How do you feel?" Goku smiled, carefree as always.

"'M fine. Glad you're finally here."

Goku lifted me to my feet and brushed off some of the dirt, to no avail as it was pretty much caked on in some places.

"Your mom would kill me if she saw how dirty you were!"

"Hm, yeah probably."

"So you were taking on that big guy over there, huh?" Goku stood and began walking over to Krillin, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"That, would be a generous description of what happened…"

"Hey, what's important is you tried your best, right?"

"Sure…"

It felt kinda, off, just talking normally to Goku like this. But it's better than walking in silence.

Goku looked over the battlefield, at a well and battered and bruised Vegeta. I looked around and for the first time noticed Nappa halfway across the clearing, also looking at Vegeta. Awkward.

I don't know what I expected Nappa to be wearing when he rejoined the plot, but a button-up and slacks was not it.

"Vegeta looks like he's in pretty rough shape, what happened?"

"Same as me and Krillin. The big guy."

"Must be pretty tough then, that's fine just leave him to me, or I guess," Goku looked over the field, "Nappa's got first claim. Man, I wanted to try. Guess I'll have to take on the other two instead."

I laughed. Goku will be Goku I guess.

We made it over to Krillin who, while still unable to move, was elated to see Goku.

"Hey Krillin, how're you hanging in there?"

"Oh I've had worse. You know, when I died. This is definitely a close second though."

"Don't worry, I got just what the doctor ordered." Goku pulled out the bag of Senzu Beans and pulled out a bean, feeding it to his friend.

"I'm so glad you came, but I kinda wish you hadn't…" Krillin muttered as he ate the bean.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"It's those Ginyu guys. They're too powerful."

I glanced over to see the three of them shocked that first I, now Krillin have gotten up with no issue.

"I'm not trying to be negative, but it's just, we're way too outclassed. I know you're really strong, and that Nappa guy probably is too, but man, I'm telling you, we've never dealt with anything like this!"

"That's why I said you shouldn't have come, I mean, Vegeta couldn't even stop them and he's stronger than ever!"

"Yeah, about Vegeta… what was he doing fighting them in the first place? I thought he was on their side?"

"I don't even know where to begin, it's been crazy here," Krillin lamented.

"Don't speak, this'll be a lot faster, just relax," Goku said as he placed a hand on Krillin's head.

"Uh, ok?"

And for several seconds, nothing happened.

"Ah, I got it!"

"Uh, what? How?" Krillin asked and I took several steps back.

"I read your mind."

"You what? How? When? When did you learn how to do that?" Krillin exclaimed.

"I dunno, just can. Gohan? Is something wrong?" Goku glanced down at me.

"Is that just, a thing you can do now?" I glanced from his hand to him several times.

"Yeah, it's really cool, wanna try?"

I shook my head and crossed my arms in front of me, "nope! No, I'm gonna need you to uh, never do that. To me ever. At all."

"Uh, ok. Sure."

That. Is a problem. Luckily, I'm pretty sure Goku just, forgets about that after this moment but I cannot be too careful.

"Ok…Hey but don't worry about it, Nappa and I have been training in 100 times gravity, it'll be fine."

"What? How?! You'd be crushed!"

"Nah, I think I've just got tough skin or something. I'm fine!"

Goku took out the last bean from the bag.

Obviously, I knew what he was gonna do before he did it.

I kinda wish he wouldn't.

But, for plot reasons, I guess it's best if he did.

So, I said nothing as Goku tossed over the bean to Vegeta.

"Eat it Vegeta! It'll heal you up! Good as new!"

"Hey! We can't be sure about Vegeta? Are you nuts?" Krillin questioned.

Across the clearing, I saw Nappa shaking his head. If I had to guess, I'd say he was muttering the word, 'idiot.'

Glaring, Vegeta took the bean and was immediately surprised by the results.

"Listen Goku, I hope you know what you're doing, because I sure don't! You're taking a huge risk!"

"I owed him one, if it weren't for him, you two wouldn't have gotten this far."

"I guess you've got a point… hey are, are you just gonna, stay here?"

"Well yeah. Nappa already claimed this guy to fight. It'd be rude to interrupt."

I glanced down at my hands. Man, I gotta get me some of those beans. It'd be real nice to have a stable supply of those.

Once again, I felt stronger than I had before. A lot stronger actually, but it felt a lot more…natural than when Guru unlocked my power. I don't know why. Must be a Sayain thing.

"Look Goku, I get that he's strong, probably stronger than he was on Earth, but, I really don't think he can win this on his own!"

"Don't worry, I'll step in if I need to, but I don't think I will."

Already bored with this conversation I sat on a nearby rock.

Glancing down, I saw a spot of purple on my ankle.

…

Anyway, I stood back up to watch the fight.

Which it was one, unlike in canon where Goku just kinda curb stomped Recoom, Nappa had an actual fight with him.

But I don't think it was because of any sort of him being weaker than canon Goku. If anything, I'm pretty sure they were both stronger.

No, I'm pretty sure it was for the same reason that he fought the rest of us back on earth instead of yeeting us immediately.

He wanted to fight. And he wanted it to last. It was play for him.

Watching the fight, it was clear how one-sided it really was.

Now, on one hand, Nappa being this much stronger, while being expected with the setup, was kinda, really, annoying…

But on the other hand…

"Hey Krillin, look at Vegeta," I snickered, turning my head to watch as Vegeta had an existential crisis or three.

"Oh yeah, he's really freaking out over there."

Every missed or blocked punch or kick only proved to aggravate Recoom further.

"Hey Nappa! Could you stop playing around already?" Goku yelled up to the pair and the idea that Nappa wasn't even trying enraged the oaf.

He began charging up his eraser gun.

"Ah, fine."

In an instant, Nappa was behind Recoom, and then Recoom was on the floor. I couldn't even see what he did, not really.

And then, Nappa raised a hand and blasted him into oblivion.

"What? Hey! Nappa! That wasn't necessary!" Goku yelled.

Nappa all but rolled his eyes, "like hell it wasn't. What? Do you think he's just gonna turn traitor on Frieza? That he'll just decide, oh well, guess I'm good now cause this guy didn't kill me!"

"Well, you did."

"And you're making me regret it. Do you have any idea how lucky you are that I did? I could have killed you several times over on the trip here. Hell, I could have just stayed on earth and killed everybody there while you came here alone. At least your kid took the bare minimum precaution in cutting off my tail."

"But you didn't do any of those things!"

"I could have! You're way too trusting! What if it was just a trick to get back onto Frieza's good side?"

"It wasn't!"

"You didn't know that."

"Yes I did."

"No, you didn't."

"Ok….um, so, ignoring this, very strange argument, what just happened." Krillin interrupted the back and forth that was clearly going nowhere.

"I killed the bad guy."

"Y-yeah, I see that. How? How did you get that much stronger? You weren't even able to move when we left!"

"Ate a magic bean. Trained a lot."

"…ok, fine. Whatever," Krillin accepted the, less than lackluster explanation, "what about the other two?"

"Well I'll-"

"Hey! You fought the big guy, I get to fight the other two!" Goku cut in.

"We never agreed to that."

"I thought it was obvious!"

Oh boy, I hope this isn't a common occurrence.

Regardless, it was a lot more entertaining to watch Vegeta freak out than listen to them bicker.

Heh. Vegeta was for a total loss for words as he glared at the two, he was practically twitching in place.

Come to think of it, no one even told him Nappa was coming did they? Ha, oh well. Too late now.

Course it was understandable he'd be so freaked out, after all, he'd beaten Recoom who had previously ground all the rest of us into the dirt.

…

Anyway.

At some point, the two resolved their argument and Goku was fighting the other two.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they resorted to Rock Paper Scissors over it like the Ginyus had before.

I couldn't really focus on the fight. For one, the two Ginyus faded into red and blue blurs for half of it. And for two, my mind just wouldn't stay on it.

Krillin had to pull me back by the back of my Gi when some Ki blasts that Space Australia fired wildly.

There was one instant where Goku just casually punched him in the face a few times. That was funny.

But for the most part, I just focused on watching Vegeta have several existential crises in relatively few minutes.

I'm pretty sure he was just repeating the word "No," over and over again.

It's not like what was happening over there was really a fight. Those two couldn't even touch Goku.

The fight finally seemed to wrap up when Space Australia tried to fire a finishing blast at Goku, only for the both of them to be shocked when he just deflected it.

Then Goku finally moved for the first time in that fight.

In an instant, he was behind the blue guy, much to his utter dismay.

And then the fight was completely unreadable again.

Welp, back to watching Veggie's existential crisis. Heh.

The fight seemed about up with Goku back on the ground, his punch being the only thing holding the blue guy up. He was promptly dropped.

"This fight seems kinda pointless, now doesn't it?" Goku asked, barely turning his head over to Space Australia.

"You guys should just get out of here, no reason to die in a pointless fight here."

"DON'T BE A FOOL KAKAROT! THEY'VE KILLED MORE MEN THAN YOU CAN COUNT!" I flinched away from Vegeta's surprising shout.

"So have you…" I couldn't help but point out. I mean I agreed, technically. But it'd also be really hypocritical.

"Silence Child!"

"Come on Vegeta, we let you go on Earth. Don't you think they deserve the same chance?"

The noises of frustration coming from Vegeta were very amusing.

The sound of a Ki blast caught my attention as I saw Nappa had tried to shoot Space Australia down from the sky. It nailed him in the back, but he managed to stay afloat, albeit now injured.

"Nappa! What'd you do that for?"

"We're not playing this game Kakarot! You let him go, and it'll take about three minutes for Ginyu to get here. If we're lucky and it's not Frieza."

"Come on…you don't know that…"

"Yes! Yes I do! Because it's exactly what I would have done in that situation!"

The bickering went back and forth for a while, now with the addition of Vegeta.

"Uh, guys?" Krillin spoke up, and got mostly ignored, "guys? Guys!"

Finally, the three remaining Sayains turned back over to Krillin, "yeah, he's gone."

"Aw…he left his friend behind…"

"Great! Let's just see how long it takes for Ginyu to get here!"

"Ridiculous! How could you let him get away! Your Halfbreed spawn is more willing to kill than you!" Vegeta just had to add.

"Hey, don't bring me into this," I took a half step back only to spot another spot of purple smeared on my arm.

"What?" Goku questioned, and didn't get much elaboration as I just glanced away.

Ok, I'm done with this.

I walked over to the edge of the island and jumped into the water, quickly rubbing away any remaining dirt and various colors of blood.

By the time I re-emerged the bickering had resumed.

I walked over to retrieve my sword, clicking my tongue as I looked over the cracked surface.

Guess I'm adding 'new sword' to the list of things I need. Maybe I'll just ask Piccolo to make me a new one. That seems the easiest.

Regardless, I sheathed it for now and went to grab my backpack and cloak, now even happier that I took it off first. I'd hate for it to be stained purple and red.

By the time I was done, the bickering seemed to have died down. Oh and also the blue guy was dead now. Considering the positions, I'd guess it was Vegeta that killed him.

Goku noticed me back on site, "hey Gohan…"

He was cut off before any conversation could start.

"Hey Vegeta."

"Hi Ginyu."

A pause, processed, and a sigh.

"Wow! What a surprise." A remarkable amount of sarcasm from Nappa. Maybe he learned it over the month and a half in the hospital.

"That's 'em, Captain! Those are the guys who killed Recoom and Burter! Oh, and the little one killed Guldo."

Gee. Thanks.

"Well that's just embarrassing. That one looks like he just rolled out of bed!" Ginyu pointed to Goku, "never mind getting killed by Vegeta's Lackie and a child! Honestly…" he shook his head.

Ok, we can stop pointing that out now.

"You know I'm surprised you're here Ginyu. I thought you'd be too busy polishing Frieza's boots," Vegeta said, as snide as you'd expect from him.

"First off, Lord Frieza doesn't wear boots. Second, if he did, I'd have already polished them. Third, he's off chasing some leftover Namekians."

"Wait…so Frieza's not at his ship?"

"Correct."

"And you're here?"

"That's right."

"And the average power level of Frieza's soldiers is…?"

"Two Thousand."

"Interesting!" There was a borderline laugh in Vegeta's voice.

I, I don't know if Ginyu was just, really stupid, or if he just did not consider us a threat at all.

Honestly, Vegeta threw away any amount of subtlety with the last question, and yet it was not noted.

"Alright guys, it's time for you to leave. Get the Radar and see if you can get back the Dragon Balls." Goku said, just low enough that hopefully, Ginyu hadn't heard.

"And when you say you guys…you mean who exactly?" Krillin had the thought to ask.

"I was thinking Nappa could go with you two, and Vegeta could help my fight," he glanced over, "I kinda trust Nappa a little more, so, that's probably the safer option."

"I-" Krillin looked over at Nappa and frowned, "ok Goku, if that's what you think is best…"

"Alright! Now that that's settled!" Nappa clapped, I half suspect he just wanted to get away from Vegeta. Which was fair.

I turned back before we left, "am I forgetting something…?" I half mumbled to myself…

"Gohan?" I turned back to Krillin, who was waiting.

"Oh, it's nothing." Probably.

With barely another word, we were off. Ocari's power was the highest of the three, not that that was saying much, so that's what I looked for. Pinpointing it, I pointed in the direction and that's where we went.

Krillin had positioned himself so that he was between me and Nappa, not that I minded.

"I just don't see why Goku has to trust that guy…" Krillin lamented.

"Well, technically we did too. Not that we had a choice in the matter."

"Eh, Vegeta can be, rough. But he's not too bad once you get to know him!"

"He literally tried to kill you," I couldn't help but point out.

Nappa sighed, "Yeah, yeah he did."

Krillin stopped mid-flight. I immediately stopped after him, and Nappa a couple of seconds after that.

"Look. I don't trust you either. I'm just going along with what Goku thought was best," Krillin said with a barely concealed glare, "we wish our friends back, and then we'll see. But until then, I don't think I could ever forgive you."

And Nappa, grinned, "well that's a relief! At least someone around here has got some common sense! That Kakarot might be a good person or whatever, but that kind of trust is only gonna get him killed."

"Right…." Krillin didn't seem to know how to respond to that, "let's just get the Radar."

"Right right. So what's this radar for?"

"It's how we track the Dragon Balls." I answered.

"Oh, neat. Sounds convenient."

"Yeah."

"How'd you get your hands on something like that?"

"Bulma made it."

"And Bulma is…the blue-haired one?"

"Yeah."

"The same one who piloted your ship?"

"Yeah."

"Must be pretty smart."

"Yeah."

"Our ship on the way here was on autopilot and your father still almost managed to get us killed, twice."

"Neat."

Apparently, Nappa could not get the hint from my bare minimum responses and continued talking the entire trip.

I regret, several things.

Finally, we made it to Bulma and the babies, who had apparently moved from the previous hiding spot.

And immediately had a shot from that gun I gave her fire at Nappa. He just let it hit him and no damage was received.

"Feisty."

"Krillin! Gohan! It's you!" Bulma lowered the blaster as she noticed who it was. She side-eyed Nappa and seemed to debate firing at him again.

"Gohan?" Ocari glanced around Bulma, he took a few steps forward, and hesitated.

"Hey," I smiled, clearing the distance, "how you been?"

I didn't want to startle him, so I didn't get closer than necessary.

"Things have been, good. We are if a different location now, which is- but overall nothing bad has happened," he apparently found his hands very interesting as he spoke.

"What has- and who is-" he glanced over my shoulder to look at Nappa, who was just kinda, standing around as Krillin collected the Radar from Bulma, a position I was glad not to be in. Cargo was also in a state of standing around as he looked between Krillin and Bulma.

"Sorry, but we're still in a bit of a hurry. Can the explanation wait a little longer?"

He looked from me to Krillin to Nappa then back to me. Hesitantly he nodded.

And we were back off, following the Radar.

We followed the Radar to, assumably, Frieza's ship.

There were no Ki signatures around so either all the grunts are off scouring, or Vegeta got here first and was suppressing his own.

Technically it was 50/50 odds, but I'd be willing to bet on the latter. Because Vegeta.

"Radar says the Dragon Balls are right outside the ship," I read off the device, and tried to ignore Nappa looking over my shoulder.

"Huh, weird. They must have hidden them."

"Makes sense. I doubt they'd expect someone to have a tracker for them." I landed and followed the Radar to an uneven plot of land. It was reburied well enough that it wouldn't be immediately noticed, but possible if someone was really looking.

"Here," I pointed.

"Welp, I guess we're digging," Krillin noted as he looked over the area.

The idea of digging through the dirt lost its appeal when I was about ten, but if I had no other choice…

"Or-" Nappa spoke up, pointing a hand at the plot. Krillin and I scrambled out of the way as he sent a blast to the land, uncovering the orbs.

"Ok, well, that works…but maybe, don't do that with them in the future. I'd rather not durability test them," Krillin noted. Nappa shrugged.

Krillin counted up the Seven and laughed, nudging my arm, "hey, looks like things are working out after all, huh?"

I smiled, "yeah, about time."

'Course, I knew you had to summon them in Namekian, which none of us spoke, but at least we got them away from Frieza.

Krillin's dramatic and almost exaggerated summoning stood to no avail for several seconds.

He stood there, arms in the air…as absolutely nothing happened.

"Sooooo, is something supposed to be happening, ooorrrr…" Nappa drawled as he stood over us.

"No. No no no, no! Nothing's happening! But why? We have all seven!"

"Yeah…you probably need to summon them in Namekian or something," I noted, and Krillin all but collapsed.

"Ok! That's fine! We can just go get Cargo, or Ocari, and ask them to summon it?" Krillin borderline asked.

I shifted; I hadn't previously considered that. The idea of bringing another child into the range of danger, I didn't like it, especially when Dende was probably already on the way here.

"If it needs a specific password, they probably wouldn't know it," was my final response.

"Well! We have to try something! We can't just-"

Krillin cut himself off, his head turning to the distance.

"There's someone coming, two of them," he said, and I extended my sense in that direction.

Krillin grabbed my arm and his us behind a rock. Unfortunately, Nappa followed.

"That sensing energy thing must be really useful. I couldn't get a hang of it just yet, but I will! Eventually!" I frowned as I ignored Nappa.

Well, one was definitely Space Australia, but the other was, off. It almost felt like Goku, but not? What was-

Oh.

Well, uh.

Whoops. Forgot that.

The two figures landed, and I rubbed my forehead in annoyance.

Space Australia, and definitely totally the real Goku seemed surprised that the Dragon Balls were dug up. You know, despite the fact that Goku was the one who sent us to get them.

Well, shoot.

"Hey Kakarot! What the hell are you doing with Jayce?" I cringed away from Nappa's unexpectedly loud voice, as if he had any mode other than loud.

"Wait. No. Stop." I was really enthusiastic about making sure Nappa did not get hurt here. I promise.

"Huh? What'd'you mean?" How fortunate. That he heard me.

"Yeah…that ain't Goku." I sighed.

Both Krillin and Nappa turned to me, while I suppressed a cringe at my accidental first name slip.

The other two were also now focused on me.

"Hey Ginyu."

"Well that certainly didn't last very long, now did it?"