OPENING THEME:
Episode 21:
VEGETA VS. VEGETA: FATHER AND SON REUNITE?
With mischief evident in his eyes, the Great Ruler motioned Vegeta forward, "Come on, hit me! Do your worst!"
Vegeta smirked, "Are you sure? If you insist." His aura surged and he threw a swift and steady punch.
Smiling, the Great Ruler was not prepared for the blow. He was sent sailing towards the wall of the palace at an incredible speed and was slammed through several others before finally coming to an abrupt stop. Vegeta appeared suddenly before him as the man looked on in agony and confusion.
"My bad. That wasn't my worst," Vegeta mocked.
Growling, the Great Ruler grimaced as he fought to pick himself up. Finding the task next to impossible, he decided upon another method. The scene around them seemed to have been reversing, with the walls realigning and showing no signs of damage. Suddenly, they were in the moment just before he was hit and the Great Ruler was in perfect condition once more.
"Oh, so you're going to ask me to hit you all over again, am I right? Wrong."
Shocked that Vegeta even had a grasp of what had just happened, the Great Ruler's would-be questions were laid to rest with a powerful fist to the stomach.
"Hmm. Do you need this?" Vegeta asked coyly as the ruby-red jewel caught his eye. With a firm grasp he tugged off the tiny stone on his shirt. It was disguised as one of the buttons.
"You - you can touch me?" asked the Great Ruler, gasping for air.
"I can do a whole lot more than that," he smirked as he reduced the stone to dust between his fingers. He relished at the sight of the man's devastation.
"How - how?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," he answered casually and with a wave of his arms, he flung his palms towards the man, sending a strong outburst of energy.
Expecting the worst, the Great Ruler was sent sailing towards the wall behind him but instead of the assault as before he was stupefied by the presence of a sudden golden cuff about his right wrist and then his left.
"Now, tell me what I should do with you?" Vegeta remarked. He raised his index finger and a sliver of energy shone against the tip of his gloved hand. Reducing his aura, his blue hair was black once again, "Do you know what I am! You may have god powers but I am a level beyond that and your time displacement trick is not going to work on me. So answer me, why have you kept me from knowing about my son? And don't let me ask again."
"Because I told him to," a rough voice called behind him.
Vegeta stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with the anticipation of just who that voice might belong to. But it couldn't be, could it?
"F-Father?" he gasped as he swung around to face the newcomer and then immediately he fell to his knees and bowed his head in earnest, "I mean sire."
The King approached him with a devious smirk but he paused momentarily before him. With a wave of his hand, the shackles about the Great Ruler were broken. Knowing just what had happened, Vegeta quickly stumbled to his feet to counter but a heavy foot forced him to remain in place.
"Did I give permission to stand, boy!" the King boomed.
"I had the King's blessings to raise Fahren as my own," he heard the Great Ruler remark.
"I apologise, sire," Vegeta quickly mumbled.
In awesome speed, the King repositioned his foot under his son's chin; the golden tip of his boot edged into Vegeta's throat.
"Hm. You have a lot of talk, boy!"
A fire aura flared about the King and as it calmed, his hair was now a red-purple, "This! This is the essence of true god powers! It is impossible to go beyond such. It has taken me all of these years and plenty of stolen power but here I am. God powers are not for the faint of heart, I can assure you. I mastered this form now for a couple months although I had the power for over two years. It is a lot of work but for that I am glad or else any and everyone could become a god. Having control, you see boy, is the key - or else you run the risk of hurting yourself more so than anyone else. So tell me, what level could possibly be beyond what I am?"
His aura surging once more, it appeared as though the King guided its intensity towards the leg that held Vegeta under subjection and he laughed to see his son being tossed aside after a fierce kick.
"Now, son, show me your god powers?" he smirked. There was no way that he even believed that Vegeta possessed such power but he was hoping. After all, it had appeared as though he had defeated the Great Ruler.
Turning over onto his side, Vegeta steadied his balance with firm palms but before he could do any more, he was slammed with a heavy kick to the stomach. Coughing up saliva, he ensured to keep his stance even as the onslaught was repeated a few times.
"Get up and fight me! Show me this power that you claim to possess. I am most intrigued," the King chuckled and the Great Ruler eyed the man with deep admiration.
"He's a sneaky one. He destroyed the Omanium jewel and now I have to have the Elmorites dig deep in the dirt in search of another and wait months, even years," the Great Ruler growled, "That's assuming that they are even any more. When that idiot purged the planet, what was rare has become even rarer. Why again did you think that that was such a great idea?"
"To be fair, I had no idea that Frieza would have intervened the way he had by taking you captive, I mean with those time displacement powers I thought for sure you would have had him shaking in his boots and I most certainly was unaware of any intended harm to your planet. Perhaps keeping such powers under wraps would have been the better play but you can only learn from your mistakes, after all. Else I would have left the coldness of space and pulled you out of there ages ago."
"I barely survived that night. I suppose your idiot son isn't so useless after all, his silly devices aided in my escape underground," he said, not disguising his pleasure with a low chuckle. He made his way over to Vegeta who was shaking despite himself at what was being overheard. Was his father and the Great Ruler in cahoots and for all of these years?
With an intense aura focused about his fist, the King connected a heavy punch to Vegeta's face that sent him tossing and tumbling.
"Get up boy and fight. Or have you forgotten your saiyan pride! Humph. Figures. You were always one to rely on stupid emotions in battle."
Vegeta looked up when he heard loud thumps and he was shocked to see the boys, badly beaten and unconscious, at the feet of the man. It was only now that he had managed a glance towards the King and as such noticed the boys.
"How about I entice you to fight me, eh?"
"You - you," Vegeta said as he bared his teeth, trying his hardest to suppress his growing rage, "Had I known you had them all along..."
"But you were too quick to bow," smirked the King as he aimed a growing blast towards the boys.
"Big mistake." Vegeta's person disappeared and instead was replaced by a lightning-fast, white streak. His fist sunk into the pit of the King's stomach.
Thrown back by several feet, the King groaned in agony as he held on tight to his stomach and fought to get up. Vegeta appeared suddenly before him and followed up immediately with heavy fists and kicks, thus leaving the King in a swirling storm of debris as he landed in the walls behind.
As the dust settled, Vegeta was not pleased at the look of glee on his father's face.
"That was good, I suppose, but you are still weaker than I." He laughed even as he struggled to his feet.
"You sick bastard," Vegeta growled, "You! You were alive all of this time and you knew about my son and yet you did not see it fit to tell me."
"Tell you what?" the King smugly retorted as the wounds on his person miraculously healed instantaneously in the mist of his flaring aura, "That you successfully brought filth into this world - of all the universe you seem to be attracted to weakling women. I urged the Great Ruler to assure the death of that witch and her unborn son - I was certain she would have escaped somehow. Turns out it was only the boy that survived but barely. I asked for him to be taken care of in hopes that his power reading was not a mistake after all. But damn him, he only proved his importance after the Great Ruler's "death". He had no control whenever he lost his temper and under the guise of the Elmorites' invasion, it was much too often. The Mezorans only fight out of duty but damn - just like you were - the boy was dependent on stupid emotions to propel him in battle. I would have killed him myself after that, he did kill an enormous set of the Elmorites but I let the bastard go have his fun tracking you down and killing you along with himself. Idiot. I see he failed."
Vegeta was seething with rage now. "You - You put him up to it?"
"I merely agreed that he should give in to the rage in his heart and never fear death," the King laughed, prompting the Great Ruler to join in, "Stupid boy. Gullible, like his father. He bought every fed line from the Great Ruler."
"Even if he somehow was able to track down my memories of our collaboration - I used time displacement to make the King's presence appear as if he never existed to me," smirked the Great Ruler.
"So that explains why Mela did not see you when she read the Great Ruler's memories through Fahren's," Vegeta said, addressing his father.
"Mela? The witch? So you wished her back then?"
"What? No." Vegeta was at a lost as to how it was possible that either of the men could possibly know about wishing people back to life.
"It doesn't matter. My time displacement is beyond anything she could ever have mustered anyway. Or at least it was." He snarled, remembering the ruined jewel.
"I would never understand why you insist on mating with dud," the King interjected, "How about you do the honours and be rid of these pests!"
Vegeta followed the man's gaze towards the helpless boys. He returned his gaze back at his father to which he received a gesturing glare of approval. He charged a sizeable blast and as it grew, the building shook violently and ripped away at the walls about them. When the smoke cleared and the strong upsurge of wind subsided, the bodies were no longer there.
"Hm. Maybe I should rethink my plans for you. After all, you are my son and after that great feat, I am most impressed." The twinkle in his eyes could not go unnoticed, "I have formed my own brigade of the best warriors of the universe and I have been, for the last several years, fulfilling the task I so desperately sought after making that deal with Frieza. I, the King of all saiyans, have to date over 200 planets under my care. I know, it's a bit slow but oddly over the years, these races have become stronger especially since hearing that the God of Destruction Beerus was defeated by a mere earthling." The King chuckled, "But I suppose technology has its uses. After all it has done wonders for me but I have been privileged with the best. The Igmites are very loyal to us both."
Vegeta chuckled and his father looked up at him with intrigue.
"So you will join me, my son? "
"One thing first. Were you wished back, father? Didn't Frieza said he..."
"Killed me with one blow, am I right?" his laughter unnerved him, "I would have to be a fool to go up against that freak. Yes, I set up my best men and women to come after you that day but I had long time made my escape. I used their technology against them - I had one of my men pose as me."
"And yet you chose not to retrieve me from the ship?"
"Believe me, son, I had every intention to return and I did. I just was not expecting nothing to return to. I knew, however, that you were still alive because I was aware of just how important you were to Frieza. It is a smart move, something I might have done myself. You were always exceptionally powerful - and power like that needs to be controlled and you never quite did have control."
Growling, Vegeta bellowed, "You sick bastard. So you were alive all along and did nothing to rescue me? Do you know the hell I've been through because of that blasted lizard? But, oh yeah, you're just as twisted as he is. By taking that deal led to the destruction of our people. Does that not mean a damn thing to you? I pondered escaping as a child but my pride, my pride for you and our lost race kept me there in hopes of honouring you, to find the power you preached on and on about and to kill Frieza as you so desperately wished. That monster and his men tortured me, ridiculed me. Are you not ashamed that you wanted to follow in the tracks of such a madman!"
The king smirked, "Frieza was too powerful at the time but now that he is gone permanently with no means of ever being resurrected again, I have been slowly succeeding the remnants of his army. To succeed as ruler over the entire universe, with the technology and the man power to boot, I will control it all! Isn't that what power is for, to rule over others?" He chuckled, "The Great Ruler and I have become such good friends over the years since after all we both want the same thing."
"Thanks for sharing, father. Now I know what I need to do," Vegeta coolly said and his grin widened as he eyed the King with a thirst that sent shivers down the man's spine, "Only a god can the sense the ki of another. How about I prove it?"
Not sure what to make of what was said, the King showed his confusion and was overwhelmed when the blue aura around his son flared.
"Oh, wait. You can't sense power either way, can you father!" he grinned.
"I - I - I don't understand!" the King said, looking at the blue hair with disgust and curiousity.
Not bothering to enlighten his father, Vegeta made quick work of the man, leaving him in a pile of his own blood. The red-purple retreated and the King was donning his original hair.
Growling, Vegeta said, "Your own grandson was dud to you! The first of the continuing bloodline, a dud!"
He turned his attention to the Great Ruler who was shuddering as he watched the defeat of the King in disbelief. He too was quickly beaten and landed atop of the fallen king.
"You father, you were the most important person to me in my entire life," Vegeta shared, his voice thick with emotion, "Even as I have dropped many of my saiyan ways over the years, I never lost my pride in battle which has costed me greatly time and time again with that pompous, B.S. attitude. I fought for myself, I fought to be the best and even when I thanked Kakarot for defeating Frieza the first time, I maintained that maddening hatred because as the Prince I knew that that was my honour to fulfill, not his."
"K- Kakarot! Bardock's son!" the King gasped.
"Yes, father. The low-level was the one to turn super saiyan first and he was the same weakling earthling that gave Beerus a run for his money." Vegeta's smile widened noticing the intense shock in the man's eyes.
"W-What?"
"So instead of hopping around the universe playing the big bad bully to inflate your damn ego, you should have been using that stolen power to defeat Frieza and saved me from over two decades of hell."
"So you're not so gullible after all. I did say that I would have done what Frieza did with you - and I meant that. Not only take you and hone your skills for my own worth, but torture you mercilessly for you lack the prowess to take my place as king. The day you asked me about why one must kill, I knew then that you were no worthwhile son. Saiyans are ruthless and brutal. We fight, we kill. That is the way it is and that is the way it always will be. How about I show you proof of that. Soldiers!"
Vegeta looked about him, anxious about what was about to happen and the bold laughter of the Great Ruler did not help his nerves. Suddenly, he sensed an enormous power level that furthered his worries and knew that the group was quickly approaching. Who was his father calling out?
Green blobs danced and wiggled in unison and finding their way to each other, they formed the silhouette of a man.
"That was close, too close," Piccolo grumbled. He looked about him frantically but he was only met with the sight of the fallen girl.
Thinking fast, he ripped off a large portion of his white cape and tied it about Desy's wound while carefully holding the girl in his clawed arms. He became aware that the girl's skin was already pale and stiff with the cold of the climate. He offered his aura to her to give her constant warmth until they were once again under the purple sun.
Flying at incredible speed, he stopped suddenly when he recognised a familiar reading. Appearing before whom he sensed, the man was startled at first.
"Is - Is that my daughter?" Sentee fearfully asked.
"She was attacked by Vegeta it seemed," Piccolo revealed as he passed the girl over to him.
"The Prince? But - he would never..." Sentee replied as he held on tight to the girl and watched her with worried eyes. He was moved to tears upon noticing an ever-growing bloodstain from beneath the garment that hung tightly about her shoulder. If she had continued to bleed like this without the stranger's help, she most certainly would not have lasted much longer. And the possibility that he could have lost his child bore an intense agony within him. And now he was being told that the prince had caused this?
"Humph. You would have to be a fool to ever trust that man. I never did. I never saw reason to," Piccolo stated sternly.
"How - how did you know where to find me?"
"I sensed your power on my way to the dark side of the planet. Yours and the boys'. In fact, it was the boys' own that drove me there or else I would have stayed away having being told about the dangers there by the handful of Mezorans I managed to seek out. When I sensed your energy I came to you, I figured that the girl must have had some importance to you. I had no idea she was your daughter."
"Yes," he said, "Thank you. I made a vow not to let anything happen to her to her mother. How she must be frowning down on us from heaven as we speak." He swept aside some of the girl's messy locks from about her forehead and a faint smile crept on his face.
Piccolo's hardened countenance melted away and he too smiled but his demeanour gave away his sorrow.
"I do not know what Vegeta has planned up his sleeve, but no matter how I think it over I fear the worst is yet to come unless we find a way to intervene." Piccolo finally looked up and took note of the other man next to Sentee as they floated in mid-air, "And you?"
"Ratio," the stern face meekly smiled as he took hold of the proffered hand, "The best darn scientist on this planet."
"After I left the dark side, I was suddenly surprised by a swarm of creatures as opposed to one giant and it would have been difficult to get away had I not used time displacement. Their attacks fazed through me but I was running out of time but luckily they gave up on me. I wanted to go after them knowing they were going back to the children but then I sighted Ratio who was well-hidden. We were just on our way to the village to recruit our best men to venture in the dark side to retrieve my girl and the boys," Sentee explained.
"I am not sure what have become of the boys. I cannot sense their power at all," Piccolo lamented.
Ratio and Sentee lowered their heads in sorrow.
"Sentee, as it is that nothing else can be done and we have your daughter, I believe we should call off this one-sided war. We are far too powerless but the sooner you go, the sooner you will return. And you may even return with a way to get even stronger," Ratio declared.
Piccolo showed his confusion and Ratio was quick to explain.
"Having escaped the Elmorites who somehow did not seem that interested in attacking me - I used that time that I was away and activated my Inflomotriate that I barely managed to retrieve from my lab before my recapture to determine just where exactly the Igmite planet is located. This device has an established list of all the planets of this universe - something that took much of my youthful years to develop. And perhaps, if I'm lucky, several more to have a perfect list."
"Indeed - you are as brilliant as you say but why the interest in the Igmites?"
"They have access to the special element they are using to drain our power. If we get a hold of such, perhaps we can use these devices on them in return and finally be rid of this pitiful way of living."
Sentee shifted the girl over to Ratio's arms and immediately retrieved the DynoCap that he hid under his clothes.
"How did you...?" Piccolo started, his shock evident by his gaping mouth.
"A gift from Earth," Sentee explained as he pressed on the lone button.
Piccolo watched on as the puff of smoke was replaced by a necklace. He eyed the jewellery with disdain and more so as he watched Sentee place it about his neck.
"I will be back in about 30 minutes or so, or so I hope, I never did do this before after all," he said as purple mist engulfed his person, "Also I do not know what to expect when I get there. Common sense says that these creatures have great power with their devices but I am unsure of if they are a friendly bunch or not. However, it is the risk I have to take."
Piccolo's eyes widened with understanding and he nodded, "Take me with you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Grab hold."
As Piccolo rested a firm grip on Sentee's shoulders, a massive ball of purple energy surrounded them and they disappeared without a trace.
Ratio gasped at the sight but quickly regained his composure. He looked down at the girl in his hands, "You'll be good as gold in no time as soon as I get you some Pilkinen Soup."
And he dashed off.
END THEME:
PREVIEW OF NEXT EPISODE
"Son Goku here! I wonder what the King has got up his sleeves. As far as I can see, the battle is long lost. I mean who could he possibly be calling out? Hm...I wonder."
A large group of warriors respectfully bow before Vegeta as he gawks at their tails.
"Um...are you thinking what I am thinking? In that case, I guess you guys must be just as confused as I am. Or more like surprised, right!"
Some of these warriors charge in together, the length of their golden, spiky hair flowing behind them and release powerful blasts aimed at the unsuspecting Great Ruler.
"OK, now I'm definitely confused. So these warriors are going up against their own? See you NEXT TIME ON DRAGONBALL SUPER: BATTLE OF CONFUSION: WHO IS ON WHOSE SIDE?"
END CREDITS : Author/Creator of the DBZ series and characters: Akira Toriyama
Author/Creator of this Story/Series; Creator of a Vegeta vs. Vegeta moment that has seemingly resulted in the death of Goten and Trunks; the Inflomotriate and Pilkinen Soup (you will learn why this is important later): Chrissi B (c) March 2016
A/N: There shouldn't be any surprise of what was learnt about the King from this episode (although his involvement with the Great Ruler should be quite shocking) if you have read the movie special "The Legacy of a Prince". So, I strongly advise you to give it a read before the next episode (the very first portion is dedicated entirely to the King). And don't worry, there's a decent explanation about our guests coming up next (at least I think so). So until then.