"We have reached our destination–Planet Namek!" the ship's AI announced as the vessel carrying Piccolo, Gohan and Dende hovered over a grey and bleeding planet with white clouds providing it its only standout features by which one could tell it apart from bland cement. With a husky gasp, Dende ran up to the porthole.
"This is what's left of Planet Namek!?" the young Namekian cried out.
"It's fortunate that Puri let the planet live after she was done with it. What's even more surprising was that King Cold heeded her call to leave Planet Namek be," Piccolo sighed, authorizing the Capsule Corps spaceship to descend onto the planet's surface. Soon enough, the pathetic sights of a devastated planet disappeared from sight as a blazing outline formed around the spaceship and the portholes shut closed to protect the space tourists from the immense heat of re-entry.
It was only when the ship shook up and down with the amortization system softening the landing somewhat and when the bridge descended to guide the arrivals onto the planet's surface that the three visitors stepped out from the spaceship and walked down the bridge while absorbing the lingering, hefty atmosphere of an extinction-level event that hit this planet years ago.
"How horrible…" Dende pressed his face with his hands and began weeping. Gohan pressed his hand on the back of his friend.
"I wish I could have seen Planet Namek before all of this happened," Gohan tried comforting his good friend just as Dende comforted him during a time of significant loss.
Planet Namek's atmosphere and the sky had been coal-black. Silver-colored clouds gathered over the head and vicious lightning bolts lashed at them, splitting them apart and forcing the planet to bleed fiery blazes of ignited atmospheric gas. Namek's widespread swamps, lakes, and seas boiled and had changed their color to that of a dirty bog because of toxic emissions from the clouds. The once vibrant cerulean grass now turned ash-grey as it received virtually no sunlight from any of the surrounding suns. The stars around the planet were just shapeless fireballs as one could have seen on their way onto the new and deteriorated Planet Namek.
"Tsk, that Puri…" Piccolo hissed, clenching his fists. "I'm not sure what pisses me more about that wretch, that she ruined Planet Namek or that she acted high and mighty enough to leave the planet be like this as if she's some grand savior just doing what needs to be done."
"It's terrible to imagine how the survivors lasted this long. Namekians are incredibly sensitive to changes in our environment. Water and clean air to breathe are vital to our survival, even more so than to other species," Dende lamented with a crushed voice as he turned around on a small hill, offering brief glances in many directions. "There are around thirty-six survivors, they're widespread all around the planet."
A sparkling aura of pure, electric energy enveloped Piccolo as his form became shapeless. In a flash, the Super Namekian split into many identical clones of himself that took off toward each of the Ki signatures. The Namekian survivors splintered off. They no longer lived in large establishments that could have been easily located, which made both finding them and finishing King Cold's job much more difficult.
"Let's go meet the current elder," Piccolo sighed. Alongside Dende and Gohan, the Super Namekian took off toward the largest cluster of living Namekians. Even the surviving leader of the Namekian people only had a handful of living Namekians attending them. That was the extent of the sadness of Planet Namek's true state.
A short and obese Namekian with moss-colored, decrepit skin turned around, alongside a trio of terrified Warrior Clan Namekians watching his back at all times. They all focused their attention on the airborne visitors that were speeding up to their location with pinpoint precision. Before flashbacks to Planet Namek's most terrible moments in the hands of Turles and his men and King Cold's alliance with Dr. Puri could form, Piccolo, Dende, and Gohan descended before the current Namekian elder.
"Tsuno-san!" Dende exclaimed. "I am so glad to see you are okay!"
"If it isn't Dende…?" Tsuno coughed out with a raspy voice. Piccolo took a few glances to notice the mossy color of the skin of the surviving Namekians. What Dende said before was true–all these Namekians had been sickly and even the surviving Warrior Clans were only at a fraction of their old power. "I had never come as close to dying as I did three years ago, that's true, but the she-devil in charge of that operation specifically spared my life after making sure I was powerless."
"That horrible woman!" a Warrior Clan hissed, shaking with his fists clenched out in front of him as he simmered in his own powerlessness and decay. "She mocked us, saying that Planet Namek had to carry on like she was never here after their culling and that all that she needed was our Dragon Balls to become inert."
"It is surprising to see you alive, Tsuno," Piccolo closed his eyes and exhaled a sigh. "From what I have heard, Frieza's father and the Artificial Humans wiped out all the Dragon Clan members. That was why I came here. To see how I could best serve the Namekian people."
"Nail's successor, isn't it?" Tsuno approached Piccolo, rattling his old bones and coughing with every step. Seeing the state of this last survivor of the Dragon Clan, it wasn't tough to imagine how Dr. Puri and her henchmen wouldn't have thought much about the odds of Planet Namek recreating their Dragon Balls. "I'm afraid that the information you have received is correct. I am no longer a Dragon Clan member. Disease and decay have left me powerless and decrepit. I haven't felt a connection to Namekian magic ever since I first drew this noxious new air of my home that's never felt less welcoming and cozy than now."
"Tsuno-san…" Dende's face twisted in a sad mixture of pity and fright alike as the young Namekian collapsed to tears, lamenting the fate of his planet and his people while he trained in the craft of a Kami alongside Kami Upa and Mr. Popo on Earth.
"I see, so not even Dende could save your planet now. I'd just be dooming him to wither away and die in malady just like the rest of you are," Piccolo grumbled. "In that case, the only reprieve I can offer is to put you all out of your misery."
"P-Piccolo-san!" Gohan yelled out in objection. The Warrior Clan Namekians stumbled in front of Tsuno with hazy stares. Just walking seemed difficult enough for them as it was.
"Sorry, I seem to have misspoken," a faint smirk colored Piccolo's right cheek. "I didn't mean to kill all of you with that. That was the blood of a Demon King speaking through me. What I meant by that was–to succeed you all."
"Succeed us?" Tsuno's face shifted from terror and resignation to certain doom to bafflement. "I see… The greatest son of Planet Namek carrying on our will."
"Elder!" the Warrior Clan turned around to face his superior and try to reason with him. "Are you sure about this? If we fuse with the Nail's successor, our people will be no more! Planet Namek will remain an abandoned scar in this galaxy, a vicious and inhospitable pocket corner of hell itself."
"You are wrong, Confi. What lies within the body and soul of Nail's successor, the son of Katas, is not our extinction but our salvation. If we remain here, all that awaits the Namekians is a slow and torturous death to disease as we slowly choke on a noxious atmosphere and grow more and more sickly by consuming our tainted water and vegetables. It is better for the Namekians to accompany their savior on his journey and aid his efforts to protect the entire universe than to allow our home planet to become our grave," Tsuno said.
"Should we gather the rest?" another Warrior Clan questioned his elder.
"No need," Piccolo shook his head. "I've sent my doppelgangers after them. I intended for them to see their conditions and see to it they have everything that they need. I see now that they'll come to the same conclusion I have and fuse with the other survivors as well. When I undo my multiplication, all of their power shall return to me and seal the fusion in stone."
"Are you sure about this, though, Nail's successor? Our bodies and souls have been tainted beyond repair. I have even lost my connection to Namekian magic and the powers of the other Warrior Clan Namekians have dwindled down as well. It will not be a pleasant fusion and it will take a lot of time for your body to overcome our collective disease. Who knows when the full potential of this fusion will become apparent?" Tsuno warned Piccolo.
"What is this?" Piccolo hissed. "Are you having cold feet? I'm not doing this just to become powerful. I'm doing this to salvage what's left of the Namekian people and their spirit. If you're such a scaredy-cat, you're free to pass on your spirit to Dende here. He'll have more use of it since I don't intend on making any Dragon Balls or using any sorcery."
"What? Me!?" Dende staggered back. "N-No way… Tsuno-san… I couldn't!"
"Hmm…" Tsuno stroked his chin. "Indeed, the fusion between a Warrior Clan and a Dragon Clan would be unprecedented and unsafe. The last thing I'd want is to sabotage the salvation of my people by accidentally destroying you, Nail's successor. I'm sure that the Dragon Balls could bypass such limitations. They already have in the past, but they are a luxury that a monstrous woman has robbed us of. I'm sorry, Dende, my decrepit body and weary soul will not be much of a gift to you in this state, but the will of the Namekian people must live on."
"You hear that Dende? I guess that'll make you the new Grand Elder," Piccolo chuckled to himself as the surviving Namekians slowly gathered around him and held each other's hands to allow Piccolo to fuse with all of them at once. The Super Namekian extended both his hands to touch both ends of the living ring of Namekians as all of them lit up with vibrant, pure-white aura.
For the first time since forever, the Namekian people radiated energy that sent shock waves, crackling electricity, and clouds of dust spreading across the planet and sent their vast waters washing and crashing at the rocky shores with stormy unease. As the outlines of the Namekian warriors became more ethereal and abstract within the shimmer of their aura, their energies coalesced within Piccolo's aura in the center as a pillar of overwhelming white light stretched out into the cosmos, beaming out from the surface of a decimated Planet Namek.
Right beside him, Dende placed his hand on Tsuno's, and the shell of the former Dragon Clan Grand Elder molded with his youthful and kind-hearted successor in a much more silent fusion. Unlike his warrior kin, Tsuno just faded away with a brilliant aura erupting from within Dende's body once the fusion had been complete. Little Dende stared at his cute, little hands with disbelief for a few seconds before his aura snuffed itself out and the little Grand Elder collapsed.
"Dende!" Gohan ran up to Dende and tilted him up to let him breathe. His friend was unconscious, but a tiny speck of Ki still rustled in his core and it didn't feel like it would go anywhere.
"G-Gohan…" Piccolo grumbled, collapsing on one knee as sweat began pouring down his face and his skin became the same shade of mossy-green like the Warrior Clan Namekians he just fused with. "You might need to take charge for a little while until we recover."
Gohan scooped Dende up in his hands and nodded, placing his back out for Piccolo's support as he took it into the air and took off toward the Capsule Corps spaceship. He'd need to hurry and get off the planet. The clean aroma that the vessel provided, and some filtered water and some good, preserved food, would quickly build Piccolo and Dende up. Gohan was sure of it. It always helped him when Piccolo got rough on him during training or when Gohan spent too much of his energy trying to prove something that didn't even need proving.
As the airborne young Saiyan hurried toward the Capsule Corps spaceship, beams of flashing white energy arced in from all sides of the planet and decked straight into Piccolo's body, bringing the semi-conscious Namekian savior back to life only to shock him and force a haunting grunt out of him as the sickness within his system furthered as did his enormous and ever-swelling power.
"Hold on, Piccolo-san, Dende! You can overcome this, I know you can!" Gohan muttered to himself as he could already see the Capsule Corps spaceship in front of him. The young Saiyan landed and dragged both the Super Namekian Dende and whatever Piccolo now qualified as aboard and gently placed them down by the walls in the main hall, crossing their legs just like the pair liked to rest.
Once the spaceship drew its bridge back and sealed itself, the artificial atmosphere took over and a clean Earth air began flowing in. Gohan ran up to the two collapsed Namekians, only to witness the sweat fading away from their face and their disgruntled expressions easing up. The young Saiyan ran up and poured some clean water that he then rushed up to the pair with and washed their faces with. The color of their skin began improving bit by bit in front of Gohan's very eyes.
"Ship, get me all the available data on Namekian physiology. I need to find out if they are going to be okay and see what else they might need," Gohan asked for the ship's AI.
"Affirmative. I must inform you that you have a communications message. Because my creator and head-programmer sent it, I am obligated to run it past you and you cannot refuse to hear it out. It will run on loop until you acknowledge that you have listened to it, at which point we will immediately take off to Bulma-san's current known location," the ship's AI reported.
"Huh… Bulma-san?" Gohan scratched his head. "Okay, I guess… Not that we have a choice, it seems."
"Piccolo, can you hear me? Trunks and I are headed to Planet Vegeta. A crew of Saiyans attacked us and we're fine, but… I'm not really sure anymore what Vegeta's intentions are. Naturally, I'll give him a piece of my mind but… You know… Look, I'm not going to ask you for help, I'm just figuring that you're the only one that could handle Vegeta if he ever went ballistic on us again and I'd rather not die again."
Gohan heard the message out and slammed his little fist on the button to stop it from looping, acknowledging that he had heard the message. Just as the ship warned him, it then began speeding up toward where it could pick up on the signal of Bulma's ship with its location emerging on the radar as if it was an Ultimate Dragon Ball signal.
"Vegeta-san?" Gohan gritted his teeth. "I don't know if I'm strong enough to take him on, as well as the entire Saiyan army. Let's just hope that Vegeta-san's men attacked Bulma by accident and that he didn't mean her any harm."
Little Gohan turned to Piccolo and Dende, wondering if they'll have recovered in time to save them from a rough spot when the time comes. No. He couldn't have relied on Piccolo or his father to save him every time. He was a martial artist of his own right now. He had to fight using his own strength and decide just what kind of fighter he was and what he stood and fought for. Young Gohan dashed to the gravity device control panel and activated it, moving around the gravity chamber and shadow boxing all by himself. The young Saiyan worked up a sweat almost immediately.
"Hold on, Bulma-san, we're coming!" Gohan kept whispering to himself as he kept on dancing alone.
"Wow, what is that data reading spike all of a sudden?" Bulma bit into the tip of her index finger as she stared at the data readings on her radar while her ship blitzed ever so much closer to Planet Vegeta. "It's not like Vegeta to hog and advance alien technology like that…"
"So… Dad isn't an inventor like you?" little Trunks wondered, stepping on the tips of his fingers as he curiously tried to take a peek at what his mother was working on. Even if in his early stage of development as a fighter and as a person, he couldn't even begin to make out what his mother was doing, he enjoyed the challenge of it. Few things felt more pleasant than to get the meaning of just a single line and then unravel the entire sheet by its single thread.
"Oh no, about as far from it as it gets. Vegeta uses technology and appreciates it but he wouldn't be caught dead tinkering on it and he wouldn't even begin to imagine how to improve something all by himself. Everything about technology that he knows he's either been handed or he's taken away from someone," Bulma explained as she pushed her chair from underneath her with her bottom and approached the porthole, pressing the button to open it up as she wanted to take a look at her husband's planet when they finally slow down some for the image to become clearer.
"He doesn't sound like a very nice person…" Trunks' face soured. "If he tries to hurt you, mom, I'll knock him flat."
"He has his charming moments," Bulma muttered to herself as the spaceship finally slowed down for a clearer image in front of it. The bright Earthling woman gasped as the ship steered to the side almost immediately in reaction to a massive object right in front of it–a planet-sized marvel of steel and tubes that her spaceship nearly collided with as it seemed to loom directly over Planet Vegeta. Almost like a satellite if satellites could be as large as the planet they were rotating around. "What is that!?"
"It's like a cyber-planet or something. It doesn't seem active though…" Trunks ran up to another porthole on the side of the spaceship to look through it as he loved every second of seeing this massive artificial structure just going around its business and floating in space. "Could you build something like this, mom? It looks way cool!"
"Who knows, I'd need to know what it is and just what its function is first," Bulma gently guided her son away from the best porthole to examine the massive cyber-planet as her ship steered around it and stopped hovering directly over Planet Vegeta, requesting entry. "That's odd. I have expected to run into some company by now. I know Vegeta told me he'd tolerate my spacecraft passing through his domain but I'd have never imagined that would include right over the skies of his planet."
"If my dad isn't some sort of boring loser, no way he's down on that lame, pink planet. He'll be on that thing!" Trunks hopped with excitement. With each successive hop, he pulled himself up to see the cybernetic planet hovering right beside Planet Vegeta close enough to be a direct threat to Planet Vegeta's surface and to be clearly seen from down below. That only begged the question–why didn't Vegeta do something about this?
"I don't know…" Bulma scratched her chin. "Planet Vegeta has a certain sentimental value to him. If he is still in charge of whatever's going on here–he'll be there. Plus, look at that thing. It's all completely dark. If it's some planet-sized space laser cannon thing, it's dormant right now."
"Please, please be planet-sized space laser cannon thing!" Trunks clapped his hands together, begging whatever superior forces in the universe were listening to his prayers.
"Alright, I'll bring us down and see just what the heck is going on here," Bulma declared with hesitation in her voice as she pushed the flight stick and issued permission to her ship for landing on Planet Vegeta. The only thing to fear when landing in a lion's den was if one was still on friendly terms with a lion that one didn't see for almost four whole years now.