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Chapter 29
A Moment of Respite

Three months and three days before Kakarot arrived on0 Earth after his escape from Freeza: Immediately after, Kakarot was apprehended by Vegeta and the rest of the Saiyans. Chichi watched as Kakarot's space pod disappeared from view. Right then Krillin approached her having already recovered fully thanks to a Senzu Bean. Chichi and Kami, who was next to her, turned to him. They both noticed he wore a troubled expression, Kami asked, "Is something the matter Krillin?"

Krillin reluctantly said, "Y-yeah, Chichi I have something important to tell you."

Chichi focused on Krillin as he continued, "Y-you see, Yamcha went to check on the Saiyan-"

Chichi plainly added, "Kakarot."

Krillin immediately said back, "Yes, Kakarot. Well, he came across Mount Paozu and found that there was a pile of burned bodies, Dragon-men bodies included."

Krillin waited for Chichi's response, in turn her face looked worried before she had a brief look of light realization. After that a look of guilt came across her face, she looked at the ground and said, "I-i see."

Krillin then said, "He a-and I think it was Kakarot."

Chichi looked at Krillin with remorseful eyes and said, "I do too."

She then let out a dejected sigh and said, "You see Krillin shortly after I met him, I was ambushed by Giren and his thugs and they managed to beat me."

Krillin and Kami wore a surprised and worried expression after hearing this. Krillin immediately said, "How'd they beat you? You placed fourth in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Giren lost in the first round of the 22nd!"

Chichi then said while nervously scratching the back of her head, "W-well that's because I was worn out fighting Kakarot."

Krillin suddenly blurted out, "K-kakarot, what were you doing fighting him, I thought you liked him!"

Chichi's face was flushed out of embarrassment, "H-hey now, it's not like that."

She quickly shook her head to focus on what she really wanted to say, "I was the one to pick a fight with him. He was uncomfortably close to Gohan and Father's graves, so I thought he was a grave robber."

Krillin gave her an annoyed look before speaking in a nagging tone, "Chichi."

Chichi quickly said, "I know, I know. We fought a little and he eventually stopped the fight before either of us could get injured."

Krillin thought to himself, "She's lucky he was so forgiving. He didn't exactly go easy on me and the guys you know."

Chichi let out a breath before continuing, "Anyway, the fight wore me out so much that when Giren and his thugs ganged up on me I couldn't fend them off."

Krillin now looked worried, he asked, "What did they do to your house?"

Krillin knew that they didn't do any real harm to her seeing how she was alive right now, but he was also aware of her situation involving the grave robbers. Chichi answered with, "They tried to ransack it but then Kakarot stopped them."

A look of realization appeared on Krillin's face, he now had a better idea why she and Kakarot were on relatively good terms. He also had a good idea on why there was a pile of Dragon-men corpses on her mountain. Chichi then let out a pained sigh before saying, "I see now that he did more than just kick them out of my house. At the time he told me my problems with them were over, I see now what he meant."

Chichi gave Krillin a remorseful smile before saying, "Thank you for letting me know Krillin. When I get back to Mount Paozu, I'll make some graves for them."

Krillin then said, "I'll ask if Yamcha or Tien would be willing to help. I-it's a dirty job I'd feel guilty if I just let you handle it all on your own."

Chichi let out a short giggle and said, "Thanks Krillin but don't force yourself, you all already had a pretty hard day."

Krillin gave her a nod before giving her a concerned look. Chichi had a strong feeling that he wasn't just telling her about the corpses just so she knew there were dead bodies in her figurative back yard. The next thing Krillin said put a dejected look on her face. "If Kakarot comes back, please tell us immediately."

Chichi spoke in a low, disappointed tone, "Krillin."

Krillin immediately said back, "I know you trust him but please understand that he's dangerous. He cleared out all the bandits on your mountain in an afternoon. And all because he wanted your help to find his brother. What if he comes back to finish what his brother started?"

Chichi gave him a depressed sigh before saying, "I-I understand that you're just trying to protect me and I appreciate it, really I do. But I already made a promise, if he comes back, I'm going to give him a chance."

Krillin let out a deep sigh before saying, "Please Chichi-"

Chichi interjected, "I need to keep my word, Krillin."

He gave her a frown as she continued, "I decided I need to be more honest from now on and to be more careful with my words. I don't want to make any more mistakes because I was rash o-or reckless with what I say. I can't go back on this decision; I feel that if I do, I'll regret it."

Krillin still looked unconvinced, which is when she said, "Listen, even if I wanted to tell you that Kakarot has arrived, do you have a plan to beat him? You all just fought him as a group and yet you couldn't win. Are you confident that in a month or two, the result would be different?"

Krillin grew silent, Chichi then said, "Let's assume he arrived on Mount Paozu like he did a week ago. If he came here to kill us all, do you really think you could get to me before he did anything? Do you think I'd be able to do anything other than run and hide?"

She let out a sigh and said, "I doubt I could even do that"

Krillin began to look dejected, realizing the hopelessness of such a scenario. In truth Krillin knew full well that Kakarot was a nigh impossible opponent to plan for. Not only was he many times stronger than him and his allies combined, but he also mastered their only weakness, his tail. What's more he had mastered many of their own techniques, including Ki Reading and Ki Suppression. Almost every advantage they had which worked in their favor against Raditz would not only fail against him, but he would be just as capable of turning it on them. Krillin did have doubts that they would be able to reach his level, maybe with time however, they had no idea if or when he would return. They could have as little as a month or as long as a couple of years. They have no way of knowing outside of using the Dragon Balls.

Chichi saw the depressed look on Krillin's face and let out a sigh before saying, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to undermine all of your hard work. I just want you to understand that I need to do what I feel is right. I can't just assume the worst out of him when we left on such good terms. He could have killed you all, he could have killed me when I got in his way and yet he didn't."

Krillin gave her a hesitant look before letting out a deep sigh and saying, "Fine, but at least be cautious with him a-and don't confront him alone."

Chichi gives him a small smile before saying, "All right I promise."

Three months and three days pass, today Chichi stands at a newly constructed graveyard located on Mount Paozu. It's the same location where Kakarot burned Giren and the other bandits' bodies. Chichi closed her eyes and placed her hands together before saying, "I promise when the Dragon Balls are active again, I will revive all of you."

It only took a week to gather the bodies with the help of Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu. Krillin with the help of Bulma helped build and fund a graveyard for Kakarot's victims. Despite them being bad people, Chichi still felt guilt over their death so once every two weeks she visits the graveyard and prays to them. Despite how grim it sounds there was an upside to their deaths beyond the fact they cannot hurt or harass anyone else. Their fate was discovered by the general public in the area. Because of this, a rumor has spread talking about a monster that lives on the mountain. This monster is believed to be the one responsible for the deaths of Giren and the other bandits. They believed it lived on this mountain and disliked them intruding on its territory. The presence of this "monster" has scared any other would-be grave robbers away.

Chichi frowned at the thought recalling a time when her father used the threat of violence to scare people out of attempting to steal their actual fortune. However, in that case Gohan and Master Roshi scolded him for his barbaric actions.

Later that night Chichi was stargazing, something that reminded her of her time with Kakarot. She thought to herself, "That night was the first time I slept outside. Looking at the sky now, I wonder what the stars on another planet look like at night. Are they different or just more dazzling specks in the sky?"

Chichi frowned inquisitively, "I wonder if Kakarot would know."

Right then she saw a shooting star which brought a smile to her face. She then said, "Oh! That's the first shooting star I've seen since I was a kid."

Chichi sat up to get a better look at it; however, on closer inspection Chichi realized something was strange about the star. It was getting closer and closer; it was even moving in an odd way. It did this until it stopped resembling a star. Right then Chichi's eyes widened, "Wait, that's not a star, could it be a meteorite… or."

A smile spread across her face as she got a good look at it, recognizing it as a round white pod. She suddenly raised her voice while jumping to her feet, "No way, could it be Kakarot?!"

Chichi couldn't quite feel any Ki coming from it, but it was the exact same model of ship she saw him leave in. The Space Pod veered far from her house, but she could feel the ground shake when it landed. Chichi was about to head that way when she remembered what she told Krillin. She let out a sigh before running into her house and grabbing the house phone. She dialed up Kame house and the first person to answer was Krillin. He said, "Hello."

Chichi immediately said, "Hey Krillin it's Chichi, I know this is sudden, but I just saw a spaceship that looked like Kakarot's ship. It landed a way away from my house."

Krillin broke into a cold sweat and said, "Wait there, I'll get the guys and we'll head your way."

Chichi nervously said, "Oh, r-right sure."

Krillin paused and then spoke in a mildly suspicious tone, "Chichi, that wasn't a very confident response."

Chichi sheepishly said, "N-nonsense, anyway I've gotta w-watch my p-program, I'll see you when you get here."

Krillin began to say, "Program? Wait a damn second-!"

Right then he heard the phone cut off, meaning she hung up. Krillin paused for a brief moment out of shock before raising his voice and saying, "That's a load of crap, you don't even own a television!"

Krillin then slammed the phone down and ran downstairs, where he saw Roshi watching a soap opera. He was blowing on a tissue when Krillin said in a raised voice, "Roshi! Quickly call the guys and tell them to head to Chichi's house. We think Kakarot has returned!"

Roshi stuttered with his speech, "Wait, what about their reunion?!"

Krillin yelled in an annoyed tone of voice, "That's exactly what we're trying to avoid, she's gone off on her own!"

Krillin was on his way out when Roshi suddenly said, "No, I was talking about my show, Charlotte and…"

Right then he realized that Krillin was ignoring him and had already flown off. He then sheepishly finished his sentence before musing about Chichi and Kakarot, "Junko… I guess those two's reunion could be pretty romantic too."

Meanwhile with Chichi right after she hung up her phone. She said to herself, "It should be safe, I called Krillin already and I can barely feel their Ki so I shouldn't have a problem if it isn't Kakarot."

After rationalizing her reckless decision, she then ran out of her house and flew into the sky, she mentally thanked Kakarot for those flying lessons. She went in the direction of the Ki she was feeling, though it was faint. She eventually came across the crash site, it's the same location where Kakarot' crashed before though Chichi wasn't aware of this fact, having never stumbled upon it after he left.

Right when she landed and approached the pod, she realized something was horribly wrong. She had assumed Kakarot was suppressing his Ki in order to not alarm the others. However, this close up to it made it abundantly clear that it was really weak. She peeked inside the window and saw a horribly injured Kakarot wearing a breathing mask, he was clearly in critical condition. She suddenly yelled, "Kakarot!"

She tried to feel the edges of the craft to find a handle to open it, but the pod was still much too hot from entering the atmosphere. She focused the Ki in her hands and then forced the pod open, doing her best to ignore the burning sensation spread all over her fingers. It finally relented and opened wide revealing the full extent of Kakarot's injured body. Chichi muttered, "Who could have done this to you… was it the ones that took you away?"

Chichi shook her head and then slapped her cheeks before wincing from the burns she suffered. With a serious expression she then fought through the pain to her fingers as she hauled Kakarot's broken body out of the pod. She focused her Ki to allow her to carry him after which she flew him all the way back to her house. She immediately rushed in with him, finding her bedroom and laying him on it. She did her best with his visible injuries. She was forced to remove his damaged battle jacket and undid the top half of his undersuite.

She then got more bandages and medicines before continuing to bandage his severely injured chest and stomach. When she was in the middle of all of this, she heard a familiar voice, "Chichi, are you in here."

She recognized the voice as Krillin, she was a bit hesitant but spoke anyway in a yell, "I'm in here!"

Chichi could hear Krillin's too, whose voices got louder as he got closer to her position in the house, "Oh good. I guess you were right Tien she wouldn't… what the hell?!"

Krillin's voice raised to a yell upon entering Chichi's bedroom and seeing Chichi bandaging Kakarot's wounds. Tien was in the very same room, but his stern expression hardened into a glare upon seeing Kakarot. Chichi said while continuing to tend to Kakarot's injuries, "I know you want to scold me or tell me to get away from him but as you can see, I'm busy."

Krillin realized how tense a situation he found himself in was when Tien put his index finger forward, aiming it at Kakarot. He said, "Well I'm going to say it anyway, get away from him Chichi! I don't want you to get caught in the blast."

Chichi spoke with a great intensity in her voice, "Not a chance."

Tien's expression grew irritable but before things could escalate Krillin pushed his hand down. Tien immediately said, "Come on Krillin, we both know this is our best chance."

Krillin with a serious look said, "I know but Chichi is serious about helping him and besides I doubt she did this to him which is relieving."

Tien turned to him and asked, "What do you mean?"

Krillin elaborated, "I doubt Kakarot would have come here in this state if he meant to conquer the planet."

Tien, however added, "It could also mean he's being pursued and someone who could do this to him is someone I don't want to meet."

Krillin argued back, "Even if that's true, killing him isn't going to fix that. They could still be headed this way with or without knowing he's alive."

Krillin then shook his head and said, "Besides this is all just assuming someone's after him, we can't know for sure unless he's awake and alive to tell us."

Tien immediately said back, "He could still be a threat!"

Krillin said back, "Tien, I sincerely doubt he'll wake up after he's fully recovered. The second he wakes up; we'll interrogate him and figure out why he's here. We'll decide what to do from there, is that alright with you?"

Chichi suddenly spoke in an intimidating tone, "You'll ask him."

Krillin hesitantly said, "R-right, we'll talk to him."

He then turned to Tien and said, "I doubt he'll be difficult, Chichi and him are on good terms."

Right then Chiaotzu entered the room, having heard everything. He said, "Come on Tien, this isn't like you. Let's get some fresh air."

Tien's fierce gaze shifted to Krillin and then Chiaotzu but it soon softened, he let out a deep breath and said, "Alright, we'll wait."

Tien then looked at Chichi and said, "Sorry Chichi, we'll talk about this later."

Chichi didn't give him a response; she was too busy tending to his injuries. Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu stepped outside and after a half an hour Chichi exited her house. She then looked to her friends and said, "Alright, let's talk."

A full week passes and Kakarot finally starts to drift out of unconsciousness. He let out a groan and said, "Th-this feels a hell of a lot better than my Pod. Wh-where am I."

Kakarot finally manages to open his eyes which were blinded for a few moments by the morning sun. He's only barely able to move his arms enough to rub his eyes. His arms feel really heavy but soon he's distracted from that with the room he's in. He looks around and finds that the room looks familiar. He then notes the fact he's covered in bandages from head to toes. He weakly says to himself, "S-someone went to a lot of trouble puttin' me back together."

Right then his gaze fixates on a familiar woman sitting on a chair, laying her head on a desk fast asleep. She was located right next to his bed. Kakarot smiles, recognizing her as Chichi. He then leaned back into his bed thinking to himself, "Well damn, I made it."

Kakarot turned to Chichi and was about to say something when he saw her hands. They were almost covered in bandages, but he could tell her fingers were red. He frowned and then squeezed his eyes shut. He decided it would be better not to disturb her. An hour passes and Chichi is woken up by a knock at the door. Chichi lifts her head from her desk and sees Bulma poke her head out. She greets her but then stops herself when she sees Chichi's tired face. She immediately says, "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

Chichi gets up and does a morning stretch before saying, "Don't worry, I needed to get up anyway."

Bulma smiled and then entered the room however, upon seeing Kakarot she frowned and gave him a troubled expression. She looked at Chichi who was pushing in her chair and said, "Are you sure it's safe… being in the same room as him I mean."

Chichi turned to her and gave her a reassuring smile. She then said, "Don't worry even if he did wake up right now, even I would be able to fend him off long enough for the others to bust in."

Bulma still looked a bit concerned, which is when Chichi said with a small smile, "Besides, he's the thankful type. I'm sure he won't cause any trouble."

Bulma let out a sigh and then said, "Alright, just be careful."

Chichi then said, "I will."

After this Bulma said, "I'll have the chef bot, make us some lunch."

Chichi nodded and said, "I'll check up on him before joining you."

Right after Bulma left the room and closed the door Chichi began examining Kakarot's body, checking his bandages. She noted that the bandages wrapped around his forehead were starting to develop red stains. She turned around to grab some bandages from a first aid kit on the wall when she heard someone say, "Guess yer' doin good."

She let out a high-pitched gasp before turning around and seeing Kakarot with his eyes open, looking at her. She gives him a shocked look but is distracted when Bulma asks in a raised voice while still in another room, "Chichi, are you ok? I heard you yell."

Chichi quickly recovered before saying, "Y-yeah I'm fine, I just tripped is all."

Bulma then said with relief in her voice, "Oh good, I thought something happened."

Chichi said back, "R-right, sorry to worry you."

Bulma then said, "That's alright, now hurry up with that checkup. You don't want your food to get cold."

Chichi gave her another, "Alright."

Before diverting her attention to Kakarot and saying with an annoyed look on her face, "Nevermind me, look at you."

Kakarot while raising his arms slightly said, "I'll admit, I've seen better days."

Chichi then said with a flip of her hair, "I'll say, I wasn't sure if you were going to make it when I found you in your ship."

Kakarot's gaze drifted to her bandaged hands, he then said with a low tone, "Then I can guess how ya' got that."

Chichi said back while looking at her right hand with a sad look on her face, "I'm fine, these will heal in a week or two."

She then looked at Kakarot and spoke while wearing a much more serious expression, "You on the other hand will likely be like this for a few more months."

Chichi then let out an exhausted sigh before saying, "I need to eat before Bulma comes to check on me. We'll handle all of your stuff when I return."

Kakarot nodded after which Chichi left the room, an hour passed, and Chichi returned, alone. Kakarot asked while Chichi grabbed the bandages she meant to grab earlier, "Is the other woman still here?"

Chichi said back with a little surprise in her voice, "Bulma? Why do you ask?"

Kakarot said without looking at Chichi, "Was just wonderin' how she felt given what I did to "Yamcha"."

Chichi let out a heavy sigh before saying, "We never did talk about that did we."

As Chichi approached Kakarot to replace his head bandages, he said, "We didn't have time."

As Chichi undid his bandages she agreed, "No we didn't."

She paused after removing his head bandages and said, "She was… heartbroken at first. Tien told her what happened and afterwards she was a bit bitter, but we worked that out."

Chichi began putting on the new bandages as she said, "I think she's lightened up a little on that front. She felt better when Yamcha gave her a call. She's gone back to Capsule Corp to check up on a few things."

Kakarot immediately said with a raised eyebrow, "Uh, called?"

Chichi paused, unsure why Kakarot was so confused before realizing how insane she must sound and let out a short laugh. She immediately said, "Right, I forgot that telling someone who's new to the Dragon Balls about someone getting a call from heaven must sound crazy."

Chichi then said, "You see Yamcha met someone while in heaven who could communicate between heaven and the living world, so he's been able to stay in contact."

Kakarot blinked in surprise just as Chichi finished re-applying the bandages to his forehead. He then said, "I-I see."

Chichi then pulled out a chair and sat down before giving Kakarot a serious expression. Kakarot's shoulders slumped as he realized that their big discussion was about to start. Chichi started by saying, "Just to let you know I haven't told anyone you were awake. I wanted to be the first to hear you out."

Kakarot spoke with a grim expression, "I'm guessin' they didn't take kindly to my surprise visit."

Chichi shook her head after which Kakarot let out a slow sigh before saying, "I expected as much, I did cause quite a bit of trouble by the time I left… and even before."

Chichi finally asked, "Why did you return… d-did you…"

Chichi was afraid to voice her concerns about his return. While she liked seeing him again, she couldn't help but fear that he came here after conquering a planet. She worried he came here out of desperation. Kakarot laughed before giving her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, the only planet I went to was already conquered."

Chichi's expression relaxed, though she still didn't like hearing about a conquered world; she then asked, "What happened to you then?"

Kakarot took a deep breath before saying, "They threw me in a cell for… maybe a week. Then they put me in front of our "glorious leader" and he gave me an ultimatum."

Chichi nervously asked, "W-what did he want?"

Kakarot plainly said, "Finish my brother's job or get executed."

Chichi's expression turned pale, but color returned immediately after Kakarot said, "It was a load of crap."

Chichi let out a surprise, "huh?"

Kakarot immediately elaborated, "He just wanted to screw with me one last time before putting me down."

Chichi gave him a concerned look and in response Kakarot plainly said, "Yep, I chose execution."

Chichi suddenly let out a frightened gasp. Kakarot immediately said, "Don't worry, I'm here, aren't I?"

Kakarot then said, "But man, you should have gotten a look at his face. He was furious that I didn't play along. Was actually the first time I saw it."

Chichi, with a worried expression, asked, "What happened next?"

Kakarot explained, "He threw me in an arena later that week."

Kakarot's expression changed to a blend of melancholy and stern as he said, "It's only after Prune and fightin' yer' friends here that I realized a few things."

He then said, "I used to not think much of the worlds we took for 'em. I figured I didn't have much of a choice, his Empire was as good a home as any and all a Saiyan's good for is fightin'."

Kakarot let out a heavy sigh and said, "I knew what I did wasn't right, you only hear so many hero speeches er' vengeful rants before you realize you're a murderer, then there are the screams. But it was all I was good for, I guess it runs in the family."

Kakarot's words grew venomous near the end, recalling the supposed truth of his species. He let the anger fade as he continued, "It's only after I fought my first round in that arena that I really saw what we do to the people of those worlds."

Chichi asked what he saw and Kakarot said with bitter words, "Inhabitants of the world I was on, they were just fish people, but Freeza pumped 'em full of drugs and screwed with their body because it would be fun to see 'em try n' kill me."

Chichi put her hands over her mouth in shock, Kakarot continued, "I knew he was bad, but I got a whole new look at him on that day."

Kakarot immediately elaborated as he saw a fearful yet curious look in Chichi's eyes, "They threw a pack of monsters at me and when one of 'em started melting the floor, he killed him for ruining his arena. He then threw a supposed elite team after me, but I figured out right away that he wasn't serious with them."

Kakarot then said, "They were too weak to be his elite, he was just distracting himself with 'em. When I convinced the captain that Freeza was just usin' him fer'

entertainment, he gave up and Freeza killed him just like that."

Chichi stayed silent as Kakarot let out one last breath before finishing his tale, "Long story short, he used his right-hand man to pummel me but when that wasn't enough fer' em' he took me apart himself."

Chichi immediately said through a muffled voice, "That means…?"

Kakarot immediately said, "Yeah, Freeza did all of this himself, with some help mind you. First he revealed that my brother lied to me."

Chichi asked what he lied about and Kakarot began to elaborate on his childhood in order to properly explain, "When I first wound up in my brother's squad, he ignored me. He didn't have time to teach his runt of a brother anything, he just saw me as a waste of time. He left me to Nappa, a brute of a man and a cocky bastard. Then our planet blows up and he starts actin' like we should connect and crap, I didn't care. I was alone when I entered the squad. Why should I care about people I barely knew up n' died?"

Kakarot's expression softened as he said, "But then he started tellin' me stories about 'em. Big tales about our people bein' Super Warriors and heroes n' stuff. Turns out it was all crap."

Kakarot's words grew bitter as he continued, "Freeza told me I was told altered versions of the stories, they weren't as peachy as Raditz led me to believe."

Chichi asked, "T-that's disappointing but it couldn't have been that bad."

Kakarot slightly raised his voice, "That bad!? Chichi, the reason I'm the way I am today is cause I followed those stories blindly. If not, I might have wound up like the others, sadistic and cruel. I believed the Saiyans were some race of honorable warriors and that they changed after King Cold took 'em in. That wasn't the case."

Kakarot then said, "They were wiping out whole species from the start. They killed the people they shared their homeworld with and when the King's son decided he wanted to be King instead, they fought over it until their world was a dust ball."

He then said, "Then they went to another world and did it all again."

Kakarot then spoke in a cold tone, "They freely accepted Freeza and Cold's dominion without puttin' up much of a fight… from what Freeza says at least."

Chichi looked a bit regretful, she then said, "S-sorry… but why do you look unconvinced?"

Kakarot looked nervous as he said, "I… I don't know If I should believe 'em or not. Vegeta confirmed the story but I'm still not sure I can take what they said at face value… I don't know what to do about it."

Chichi let out a breath before saying, "Let's figure that out later, for now tell me how you escaped."

Kakarot paused for a moment before saying, "Freeza broke me with that info but then… I thought about how my obsession with my people caused all of this damage. I was so obsessed with actin' the "right way" as a Saiyan that I practically forced my brother to change. Cause of that, we got in trouble, and he was sent to your world, all that crap happened cause of me. Every death here is my fault, now more than ever."

Kakarot let out one more sigh before saying in a softer tone, "So I decided I couldn't just take the easy way out. I decided I wanted to try your way, try to be better and do better, here."

Kakarot then said, "I used Solar Flare to escape, lucky me, my squad had other plans. They set me up with a way to escape and then they sent me here. They made sure my pod couldn't be tracked, so no one but my squad know that I'm here now."

Kakarot raised his voice during that last sentence which freaked Chichi out who quickly said, "N-not so loud, they could hear you!"

Kakarot interjected with, "That's the point."

Right then a new yet familiar voice came from nearby, "So you noticed me."

Right then Krillin opened the door behind Chichi which made her jump as she blurted out, "K-krillin, I didn't know… um, I mean." He immediately said with a mildly annoyed tone, "Don't bother, I figured you would try to talk to him first if he woke up. It's partially why you refused to sleep in the living room, isn't it."

Chichi's cheeks burned red out of embarrassment for being figured out. Kakarot added, "Yeah, you're too trustin'... or naive. You should probably be more careful with alien invaders."

Chichi turned to Kakarot, her cheeks still red, "Sh-shut it, you!"

Kakarot then returned to Krillin's question and said, "You hid yer' Ki well but that's what gave you away."

Krillin asked, "How?"

Kakarot explained, "I already felt yer' Ki floatin' about, the same goes for yer' buddies. So, when it suddenly disappeared, I figured you were trying to hide yer' self from me. Either that or you died, but I doubted that."

Krillin then said with a low tone, "Clever."

Krillin let out an exhausted sigh before saying, "Well despite that, I believe your story."

Chichi blurted out, "Y-you do?"

Krillin immediately elaborated, "We found your ship and sent it over to Capsule Corp, hope you don't mind. Not that you have a say in the matter."

Kakarot shook his head and said, "I don't plan on goin' anywhere anyway, so do what you want with it."

Krillin said in response, "Good, well it took Bulma and Mr. Brief some time to figure out how to open it but after that she gave it a good checkup. Despite the tech being way ahead of us, she was able to deduce that it doesn't have any tracking devices or anything like that on it. As far as she can tell no one's keeping tabs on it."

Krillin then said, "I just want to know what you plan on doing here. I get the whole redemption angle, but you can't expect me to trust you without knowing what the hell you want."

Kakarot paused for a moment before saying, "I want a way to figure out if Freeza was tellin' the truth. I need to know if my race is as rotten as I was told. Only then can I start thinkin' straight."

Krillin arched his eyebrows before saying, "Don't expect we'll be handing over the Dragon Balls. Besides, they haven't gained their power back."

Kakarot immediately said back, "I only wanted them to bring back my brother. Use them how you wish, they're yours after all."

Krillin looked a bit relieved when he said, "So, how did you want to confirm that? It's not like you can just give the right person a call. If what you told us is true, everyone who would know is either with this Freeza guy or dead."

Suddenly, Chichi's eyes light up, she says in an excited voice, "Actually, I think we can."

Kakarot and Krillin simultaneously say, "How?"

Chichi immediately explains, "Baba, has connections with otherworld. I'm sure if we talk to her she can figure something out."

Krillin then smiled and said, "Yeah, you're right. She did bring Gohan back for a day!"

Kakarot interjected, "Ya probably don't want any Saiyan from back then to come back to life even for a day. If they're stronger than me and undead then I doubt I could stop 'em from doing what they want."

Krillin gave them a nervous expression before saying, "R-right, yeah no one would want that."

Chichi chimed in with, "We could still talk to Baba, maybe she can at least set up a visit."

Krillin looked at Kakarot and asked, "Let's assume she can, who would you want to meet?"

Chichi suggested, "Maybe your people's leader? He would know something, right?"

Kakarot let out a laugh before saying, "If King Vegeta is anything like his son then he'd be too busy lecturing me about my status…"

Kakarot then said, "No, if I were to talk to anyone it would probably be… my father."

Krillin asked, "Was he important or something?"

Kakarot shook his head and said, "Not in the same way as our King but he was a rare case of a warrior of low birth risin' above his station. If what my brother said was true he's probably even stronger than me right now."

Krillin looked nervous but said, "Alright, but we'll do it after you've recovered well enough to fly on your own."

Krillin then admitted to not trusting Kakarot quite yet, "No offense but while I think you mean well, the others aren't convinced, double so for Tien."

Chichi was a bit nervous but Kakarot didn't look surprised so he said, "I'll wait till' y'all think I'm well enough to go."

Krillin then said, "Good, we'll keep a watch over you until then."

Kakarot raised an eyebrow and asked, "To make sure I stay out of trouble, right?"

Krillin shook his head and said, "No, that's only Tien's objective. For me, it's to keep Piccolo away from you. We only found out you were here because you were weakened and cause Chichi gave us a call. Piccolo hasn't caught on yet but if he does I doubt he's gonna stand around while we let you get better."

Kakarot nodded and said, "Yeah, I get that."

Afterwards Chichi and Krillin allowed Kakarot to get some rest. After they left a few hours passed Kakarot stared out the window at the night sky and thought to himself, "Father… If all goes well I'll be meetin' him soon. Guess I'll finally find out what made Raditz jabber about 'em so much."

Kakarot fell asleep wondering what his father would be like.

Author's Notes: Another chapter done, this one was more set up than action but I'm confident the next one won't take too long. Now, I want to cover something real quick just in case it becomes a IRL problem. Roshi referenced a popular comic on twitter. (if you know, you know, the first name mentioned is the main character and name of the comic) I hope simply referencing it won't be a problem since I don't (and probably can't) get paid for posting this fan fiction since it's connected to a big IP and it's only there to make a "Roshi is a hopeless romantic" joke. Please inform me if that will be a problem, hopefully it won't be. Next chapter will go over several important bits about the afterlife which I've slightly altered since Hell is very inconsistent in Dragon Ball given how it changed from the Buu saga to Super/Resurrection F, as well as filler left in Z Kai. It will also involve a fan favorite character and hopefully it won't be so long it requires two chapters, I don't suspect it will. If not then we'll be getting some interesting details about how things went down without Goku here sooner rather than later. Also, a heads up, I'm going to start applying chapter names to each of the previous chapters. So if you see notifications about those getting updated then be aware that's what that is about. Anyway, as always if you want to, please leave a review talking about how the chapter came along. It would really help me to see what people think about the fic, anyhow here comes the Power Levels:

Power Levels:

Kakarot (In recovery): 1,500

Chichi: 2,000

Kami: 1,500

Krillin: 3,500

Tien: 3,000

Chiaotzu: 1,900