Another One Bites the Dust! Journey to the Great Elder!
"I swear to God, Gohan," Suno scolded her son as they flew for their lives, "If we get off this planet alive, you will never have been more grounded before in your life!" The Namekian child in her arms was like a dead weight, too shocked and confused to offer much resistance.
"I'm not sorry," Gohan told her defiantly. "I had to do something!" Suno let out a frustrated groan. Why did her and Goku have to make such a heroic baby?
"Can we save the disciplinary hearings until after we escape the jaws of death?!" Krillin screamed in a frustrated panic. Suno nodded and looked cautiously over her shoulder to see a very big, very angry purple-and-pink ball rocketing towards them.
"Hey, Krillin," Suno asked nervously, "How flexible is that plan of yours? Because he's kind of right behind us."
"You two go on ahead," Krillin told them, "I've got this!" Suno blinked. Had he gone crazy?! Was Krillin trying to get himself killed?
"How?" Suno asked incredulously. "He's stronger than Vegeta! How have you 'got this'?"
"Just trust me!" Krillin told her while already coming to a stop and putting his back to them. Suno looked at Gohan and nodded, the pair of them putting on an extra burst of speed and quickly shooting off toward the horizon.
Krillin swallowed nervously and pulled off his tie while he waited for Dodoria to get closer. Every fiber of his body screamed at him to run away but he stayed put. He just had to hold on for a few seconds longer. He had to make sure he would get this just right… Dodoria rushed up in front of him, so close he could see the purple Namekian blood still dripping off the spikes on his head.
"Taiyoken!" Krillin cried out as he flung his hands up in front of his face. Dodoria screamed in pain and clutched at his eyes, which made Krillin smirk just a tiny bit. 'When we wish Ten back, I really gotta thank him for showing that to me.' Then he raised one hand overhead to finish Dodoria off. "Kienz–" Before he could strike, however, a black, white, and yellow blur knocked Dodoria high into the sky. That blur, Krillin realized, had a very familiar ki signature. He swallowed nervously and decided that, no, Vegeta was not on their side and immediately flew off to catch up with Suno and Gohan.
OoOoOoO
Dodoria didn't know what in the hell was goin' on. The little bastard blinded him an' then started screamin' somethin', an' now he was gettin' kicked an' smacked around through the air like some kinda rookie chump. He got knocked into the ground and came up angrier than a Borgnak with one of its heads on fire, swingin' wildly as he tried to blink the spots from his eyes.
"Stupid, no-good, sawed-off little son of a used-up, cheap, lousy–" Dodoria came to a stop when he felt two fingers pressing against his throat.
"Careful now," a familiar voice said. "That's the Queen Mother you're talking about." Dodoria's vision finally cleared and he found himself staring at…
"Vegeta," he spat. The Saiyan smirked as he looked up at Dodoria, his fingers still at Dodoria's throat.
"Dodoria," he said smugly. "The second-biggest lapdog in Freeza's army. Although now that I have killed Kiwi, I suppose that promotes you to lapdog first class. You should thank me." Dodoria snarled and balled up his fists.
OoOoOoO
Gohan had landed with his mother and the Namekian child on a mountaintop once they felt they had put enough distance between themselves and Dodoria to try and catch their breath. Before they could do anything else, though, Krillin caught up to them.
"Krillin!" Gohan greeted eagerly as the former monk touched down. His mother looked a little bit surprised.
"Wow," she muttered, "How'd you get out of that one?" Krillin grinned and scratched at his almost-invisible nose.
"Oh, ye of little faith," he said playfully. "I blasted him with the old Taiyoken." Suno grinned.
"And then you cut him in half with the Kienzan, right?" Krillin's smile faded and he rubbed nervously at the back of his head.
"Not… exactly," he admitted reluctantly. "I mean, I was gonna. Then Vegeta showed up."
"Vegeta?" Gohan asked suspiciously, with no small measure of fear. He was not looking forward to fighting him again. He knew that the other Saiyan was here but if he had gotten that close to Krillin, now he knew that they were here.
"Yeah," Krillin replied, "I didn't wanna take the chance that he was on our side, so I got outta there."
"Wait," Suno interjected, "So you're telling me that now Vegeta is strong enough to beat up that big guy?" Krillin winced and a tremor of terror seemed to shoot through his body. Clearly, Gohan realized, Krillin hadn't thought about that.
"I mean… I dunno?" he offered weakly. "Maybe Vegeta just got in a cheap shot and now he's totally super dead."
OoOoOoO
"So," Vegeta said mockingly, his arms crossed over his chest, "Someone broke your scouter, eh? Gods, that must be troublesome. I am glad that I no longer require such a crutch." Dodoria wasn't even sure what that could mean so he wasn't going to address it.
"What in the hell're you doin' here, Vegeta? You helpin' out them weird aliens?" he asked. Vegeta chuckled and Dodoria was starting to get really pissed off.
"Well I have no intentions of helping Freeza become immortal," he quipped. Dodoria ground his teeth as Vegeta seemed to completely ignore him and begin thinking out loud. "So, the Earthlings are here? I am not surprised. It seems my lot in life has now become to suffer their indignities as long as they live. Well, as soon as I become immortal, they shall be the third thing to go. First comes Freeza, and then Cooler. Then again, there is the father as well. So I suppose I shall kill them… fourth?" Dodoria bellowed with rage and took a swing at Vegeta… who wasn't there anymore. Dodoria looked around wildly before he heard Vegeta call from behind. "Back here, you doddering oaf!" Dodoria spun around and lunged, only for Vegeta to disappear again and appear on a cliff face off to his left. "Are you as slow physically as you are mentally?" What the hell was going on?!
OoOoOoO
"You really think so?" Suno asked sarcastically. "With our luck?" Krillin gave a weak shrug.
"Yeah, he's probably stronger now," he admitted reluctantly. While all this was going on, Gohan turned his attention to the Namekian.
"Hello," he said as he held out his hand. "I'm Son Gohan. This is my mother, Suno, and our friend Krillin." The Namekian looked down at his hand in confusion. "Some people shake hands on Earth when they say hello." He nodded slowly and took Gohan's hand in his.
"Hello," he said softly as they shook hands. "I am Dende." Then he looked up at Suno and Krillin. "Thank you all for saving me," he said politely. Suno smiled and gave a dismissive wave.
"Eh, thank Gohan," she told him. "He was the one brave enough to run out and help you." Then she narrowed her eyes at him. "Even though he's really pushing his luck and will be in a lot of trouble when we get home." Gohan let out a nervous laugh before Krillin changed the subject.
"We need to regroup," he said. "Let's head back to the ship and find Bulma. Then we'll try and grab the three Dragon Balls they don't have." Krillin turned his attention to Dende. "Can you fly, little buddy?" Dende nodded.
"Yes," he said, "But my name is not Buddy. It is Dende." Krillin sighed and reminded himself that he was talking to an alien life form and that pretty much every idiom and turn of phrase would be lost on him.
"Let's get moving," Suno said and they began to lift off. "And keep your powers down. We don't want Vegeta or anyone else bumping into us again."
"I have a question," Dende began. "What is a mother?"
OoOoOoO
Dodoria was surrounded in a ring of Vegeta afterimages, all laughing at him with their arms folded over their chests. He roared in rage and blasted them all away with a death beam from his mouth. That had to hit the real one. He had to be dead! Then there was a whistle from above and Dodoria looked up to see Vegeta standing on his head.
"Get down from there!" He snapped as he swung his hands up to grab Vegeta. Before his hands were even at shoulder height, though, Vegeta had already moved.
"I suppose it was somewhat dangerous to stay up there," Vegeta said with the grin he'd been wearing since the start of the conflict. "Your empty head could have collapsed under my weight and I might have twisted an ankle." Dodoria lunged forward in a headbutt and Vegeta met him with one of his own. Normally, headbutting someone whose head was covered in spikes would be a terrible idea but Vegeta was clearly the exception as he was unharmed while Dodoria's shell cracked and his spikes broke off and shattered. Dodoria cried out in pain and clutched at his skull as if trying to hold it together while Vegeta laughed again. "I once believed that your spikes were the only parts of you that weren't dull. Clearly I was wrong. Is any aspect of you not a tremendous disappointment?"
Dodoria growled and balled his hands into fists. "Why dontcha just give up?!" he demanded. "Freeza's already got four Balls! You'll never get the last three 'fore him! Even if ya do, yer never gonna get the four we already got! So what're ya even fightin' for, ya dumb little bastard?"
Vegeta cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "Twenty-four years of servitude," Vegeta said calmly. "That is why I am fighting." He took a step forward and something in Vegeta's eyes made Dodoria stumble back. "Twenty four years of grovelling, of false worship and hollow praise. A murdered father, a murdered mother, a murdered people, a destroyed planet, a throne and a birthright and a destiny that was stolen from me. That is what I am fighting for, you piece of garbage!" Dodoria, who had swam in oceans of blood and crushed the heads of crying infants in front of their weeping mothers, who had slaughtered whole planets and who had wiped out half of his own race to prove himself to Freeza, shrank back in fear.
"Y-y-you," he stammered out in terror, "You knew?!" Vegeta drove a fist into Dodoria's gut and he felt armor and shell crack and fall apart.
"Of course I knew," Vegeta spat as Dodoria doubled over in pain. "Why do you think I've been plotting against him for half a decade?" Before Dodoria could even attempt to answer, Vegeta grabbed Dodoria's head in his hands and jabbed his thumbs into Dodoria's eyes. "Now listen to me," Vegeta bellowed over Dodoria's screams of agony, "You worthless, cowardly, impertinent cur! Unlike you and all the other trash in Freeza's army, I am no bootlicker! I am no whimpering fool grateful for scraps! I am a King! And I shall take what is mine by rights! I shall have a King's vengeance! Take this with you to the nine Hells, Kinglerian! Burn this image into your soul! I will rip out Freeza's hearts one by one and eat them in front of his eyes! I will see Cold and Cooler driven and broken before me, I will hear the lamentations of Arcosian women as I rip apart their empire with my bare hands and bring them to extinction! This I swear," Vegeta's grip on Dodoria's head tightened and he twisted, "I, VEGETA!" He ripped Dodoria's head off his shoulders and lifted it high overhead before blasting it to dust between both hands. He threw back his head and roared triumphantly, the sound echoing across all Namek.
OoOoOoO
Freeza sighed, long since finished with his calculations. He'd counted exactly and decided that all of the children he'd murdered could fit on five planets, each with its own moon. Those moons, of course, would also be full of dead children. He'd been starting to doze off when Vegeta's echo caught his attention and made him sit up in his chair.
"Zarbon," he muttered as he rubbed at one of his eyes with his tail, "Dodoria's probably dead by now. I'm going to take the Dragon Balls and head back to the ship. I'm entrusting you to round up the men and find the last three."
"Of course, my Lord," Zarbon assured him with a bow, the height of courtesy and refinement.
"Vegeta did him in, no doubt," Freeza went on, "So if you find him, be a good man and kill him."
"Of course, my Lord," Zarbon said again. Freeza gave him a nod and flew off, carrying the Dragon Balls with his psychokinesis. Once he was sure Freeza was out of earshot, Zarbon huffed and rolled his eyes, his shoulders slouching as he made a face. "Be a good man and kill him," he echoed sarcastically under his breath, "As if I'm just another step in the bloody food chain." He blew up an irritated breath to move an errant lock of green hair out of his eyes and flew off. "How the hell am I supposed to even find anyone without my bloody scouter?" He grumbled to himself. "Stupid old alien. Stupid Freeza. Why does he get the wish? What if I wanted to be young and beautiful forever, hmm?" He grumbled to himself and groused as he continued to fly.
OoOoOoO
After a good two minutes of heavy breathing, Vegeta had calmed down enough to take stock of things. First he ate Dodoria's arms and legs. He had not eaten since before going to Earth, but he had been too busy sleeping, fighting, or nearly dying to notice until now. Besides, he did enjoy shellfish. Once he'd had his fill, he reflected on the only useful thing Dodoria had said. Freeza already had four Dragon Balls. Which meant that, not counting the one he had already taken, there were only two left. He took off into the sky, searching for the collections of Power Levels that would represent Namekian villages. He supposed there would only be two of those left as well.
OoOoOoO
"Okay," Suno said as they flew closer and closer to the site of the ship, "We're almost–" Suno froze up as she sensed another power level racing up behind them. "Down!" She urged, already dropping, "Everybody down!" Gohan, Dende, and Krillin quickly followed behind her and landed on an island, scrambling for cover behind a massive boulder.
"What's going on?" Dende whispered. Gohan held a finger up to his lips for silence as Vegeta rocketed into view.
"Where are you?" Vegeta demanded as he turned in a slow circle. "I know you're around here!"
'What the Hell,' Krillin thought. 'How can Vegeta sense ki? He doesn't even know what it is!'
'Well, technically, he does,' Gohan put in. 'He just calls it something else.'
'Both of you pipe down and keep your powers down!' Suno instructed sharply. 'With our luck, he's telepathic now, too.' Gohan, Suno, and Krillin suppressed their power levels and didn't even risk breathing while Vegeta hovered above them. Vegeta stopped and stared. Right. At. Them.
'Oh no!' Gohan realized as he looked over at Dende who was trembling nervously, 'Dende doesn't know how to suppress his ki! That's what Vegeta can sense!' Vegeta began to move slowly closer and closer towards the island and Gohan was steeling himself for the possibility of a fight.
Then an enormous crustacean burst out of the ocean and reached for Vegeta with one of its monstrous claws. Vegeta scowled and grabbed the creature, ripping it viciously in half and letting the corpse sink back into the water, the green oceans turning murky with blood.
"That must have been what I sensed," Vegeta muttered before he flew off again. The quartet let out a collective sigh of relief and waited in silence for a minute before flying off again.
Almost twenty minutes later, having flown as quickly as they dared, the four returned to the Namekian ship. Dende gawked up at it in wonder as they got closer.
"I've never seen one of these before," he whispered with the same kind of reverence humans would use for an ancient ship or a castle. "It must have been built before the Cataclysm!"
"Bulma's not here," Suno muttered as she looked around. "Let's check the cave." They walked toward the cave they had first hidden in while Gohan turned his interest on Dende, very intrigued.
"What was the Cataclysm?" Gohan asked. "What were things like before?" He wanted to know about Mr. Piccolo's people.
"Long ago," Dende explained, "There was a great drought that nearly wiped out our entire race. Only Guru, the Great Elder, had the power to wish for an end to the drought on the Dragon Balls." Before Dende could go on, however, the group came to a stop in front of a giant Capsule House that took up more than half the cave.
"Anybody home in there?" Krillin called out, his hands cupped around his mouth. Suno snickered as Bulma finally opened the door and Krillin smiled a little. Finally, someone else found one of his jokes funny.
"Hey guys," Bulma greeted cheerily before she noticed Dende. Her first reaction was to freak out and rave with excitement at an actual live alien being right in front of her face but she saw the shocked look in his eyes and the discomfort in his body language and thought better of it. "Hello, little one," she said in a friendly tone as she dropped into a crouch to be on eye level with Dende. "I am called Bulma. What is your name?" The others stared at her. She was speaking Namekian again.
"I am Dende," he said politely in Namekian, if slightly confused by someone who wasn't his species speaking his language. He looked back and forth between Bulma and Suno. "I am confused," he asked in basic. "What are you?"
"Oh yeah," Suno said, "I kinda noticed that the village only had males. Bulma and I are females." Dende nodded but he didn't look any less confused.
"But," he went on, "What are you?" he asked, gesturing to the group as a whole and grew more and more panicked and desperate with each subsequent question. "Why are you here? Where are you from? How do you know about the Dragon Balls? Why do you want them?" He took a deep breath before he asked in a small voice, "Can… can you save my world?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Krillin said as he held up his hands, "Take it easy. That's a lot to unpack. Well, first off…" Then he turned to Gohan and ruffled the boy's hair. "You wanna tell him, Gohan? He seems to like you." Gohan's face took on a slightly pinkish hue before he nodded and turned to Dende.
It was a bit of a tale to tell. First and foremost, Gohan told Dende about Earth and that they were Earthlings. Then he had to tell him who Kami was which would explain why they knew about Dragon Balls. Then there was the fight with the Saiyans and Mr. Piccolo's death, which meant that they had to come here. Finally…
"Yes," Gohan assured him as the group sat around Bulma's Capsule House kitchen, "We will do whatever it takes to save your planet." Krillin took everyone's plates and stacked them up in the sink as Gohan finished talking.
"So," Suno said, "If this Freeza guy already has four Dragon Balls and Vegeta's looking for them, too…"
"Oh!" Bulma interrupted excitedly. "I almost forgot! My dad called while you guys were out. Goku is on her way! She should be here in six days!" The others gave a cheer while Dende looked confused.
"Who is Goku?" he asked. Suno smiled proudly as she picked up Gohan excitedly and gave him a quick hug before setting him down.
"My wife," she explained, "And the strongest fighter I know. She'll be able to take on Vegeta, I'm sure of it. Heck, the way she trains? I bet she can take on Freeza!"
"So all we have to do," Krillin said, "Is hold onto at least one ball for six days. That way, Freeza and Vegeta can't become immortal and then Goku will get back here and kick their butts!"
"If these people are searching for the Dragon Balls," Dende explained, "Then Elder Guru is in danger! Please, let me take you to him!"
"Hold on," Bulma interjected, "Who's Guru?"
"The Grand Elder of our people," Dende explained. "He is the wisest and oldest among us, the one who leads us and who we turn to in times of trouble." Like the village chief, Suno thought to herself. "He is the only one who survived the Cataclysm. He is the one who birthed the entire planet's population. I am Guru's one hundred eighth son." Suno winced.
"Wait," Bulma interrupted again, "If there's only males, how did Guru have you all?"
"Namekians reproduce by spitting out large eggs," Dende explained nonchalantly. The others stared at him. "...How does your species reproduce?"
"Nooooot important right now," Krillin said quickly. "So why do we need to go to Guru?"
"He has one of the Dragon Balls," Dende explained. "If what you're saying is true, he is in great peril!"
"Suno and I'll go," Krillin decided. "All of us together will be too much power. Vegeta or someone'll notice."
Suno nodded as she turned her attention to Gohan. "That means you stay back here and protect Bulma," she told him. "I'm counting on you to stay out of trouble." Then she turned to Bulma, "And I'm counting on you to keep an eye on him."
"No problem," Bulma assured her with the tip of an imaginary hat.
"I'll do my best, mother," Gohan promised. Suno smiled and gave Gohan a peck on the forehead before following Krillin and Dende out of the cave.
"So how long'll it take to get there on foot?" Krillin asked.
"Thirty days," Dende replied.
"Crap," Krillin muttered, "We haven't got that kinda time." He gave a resigned sigh. "Guess we're flyin' anyway." Then he and Suno flew off, letting Dende take the lead.
OoOoOoO
Raspberry surveyed the damage he, Blueberry, and the others had done, the village laid to waste and dead Namekians surrounding them. They'd heard about the other groups getting wiped out by warrior Namekians but their troupe had survived.
"The day is ours!" Raspberry declared triumphantly as he held up the three-star Dragon Ball. The others gave up a cheer and they pressed their fists together in a circle. Until Vegeta landed behind them, a Dragon Ball under one arm.
"Afternoon, gentlemen," he said calmly. They turned to face him and were overcome with dread. With his black undersuit and the malevolent glint in his eye, he looked like Death itself. "Would that be one of the Dragon Balls? I've got the seven-star already, as you can see. Would you mind handing it over?" Raspberry slowly raised his shaking arm and, before he could turn it into a cannon, Vegeta punched him so hard in the face that his head flew off and hit the woman behind him with such force that their heads exploded. "Anyone else want to try?" The others quickly pointed their cannons at Vegeta and he smirked. "Good answer."
OoOoOoO
Krillin flew behind Dende, his whole body buzzing with tension. Dende had said it would take five hours to get to Guru's hut at this pace and Krillin didn't like being out in the open for that long. But flying any faster would raise their power levels enough for Vegeta to find them.
"This is bad," Krillin muttered to himself, "This is really bad. Ohhh, I just know we're gonna get caught." He found himself wishing he could find time to change into his gi. If he was gonna die again, he didn't wanna mess up his good suit.
"Krillin," Suno muttered beside him, "Would you give it a rest? We've been flying for almost twenty minutes and we haven't seen–" Suno frozen she saw a flash of purple out of the corner of her eye and knew Vegeta would be on top of them in a second.
"You were saying?" Krillin mumbled in an odd mixture of dread and "I-told-you-so" smugness. Vegeta already knew about the Taiyoken and the Kienzan so Krillin was fresh out of tricks. Still, Suno thought, maybe Krillin could throw a few desperation Kienzan before Vegeta could get close enough to rip their legs off.
It would never come to that, thankfully, because Vegeta suddenly took a sharp turn and rocketed off to the east before he ever saw them. Krillin didn't know what Vegeta had seen or sensed and he really didn't care.
"Come on, Dende," he said as he grabbed the little Namekian's wrist, "This is our chance! Hold on!" Then Krillin and Suno flew for all they were worth, flying through the sky like their lives depended on it. Which, they knew, they did.
OoOoOoO
Zarbon had been flying around for hours and was just about to go back to the ship and tell Freeza that the search would have to wait until they could acquire new scouters when something strange caught his attention. He paused over a Namekian village and slowly descended down onto it when he noticed that, among the Namekian corpses, there were corpses of their own soldiers. He couldn't remember their names, obviously, but he recognized the armor. That was about all there was to recognize. Many were dismembered or had holes punched through them. Some had been blasted to bits! Whoever caused this nonsense, he supposed it was his job to clean up the mess.
Owing to his reptilian ancestry, Zarbon closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue to taste the air for blood. It wasn't an especially refined ability of his and required a bit of his focus but it was the next best thing without his scouter. He slowly drifted up into the air and followed the trail for several minutes before he lost the scent completely. He opened his eyes and let out a weary groan. Now he was hopelessly lost! Before Zarbon could turn around and try to find his way back to the ship, however, Vegeta was on him in the blink of an eye.
"V-Vegeta!" Zarbon stammered in shock. The Saiyan King rubbed his hands together eagerly and chuckled.
"Zarbon," he greeted with malicious courtesy. "So good to see you again. After my encounters with Kiwi and Dodoria, I've yet to be defeated by Freeza's special toadies." There was a malevolent glint in Vegeta's eye as he grinned. "Care to try your luck?"