Val flew after Vegeta, catching up with him half way, with neither of them speaking. She landed next to him. She felt her hands still shaking, and a cold sweat trickle down her lower back. She rubbed at the back of her shirt and then crossed one arm over her chest and clutched the hydrangea necklace with the other hand. She felt the cold metal of both bracelets press against her. She looked back behind her, seeing Yamcha land right next to her. She felt a sense of dread that she was likely going to watch him die along with anyone else who showed up here. And then when it was over, she had no doubt she would be taken all over again.
"There's two massive kis and about half a dozen weak ones," Vegeta said.
She looked over at him, thinking out loud, "King Cold."
"Who?" Yamcha asked.
"Frieza's father," she answered, feeling sick to her stomach. She placed a hand on her stomach to ease the tension.
"They'll land around here," Vegeta said, looking around at the sky.
Val heard a noise behind that sounded familiar, but out of place. She looked back, seeing a Capsule Corps helicopter in the sky. "It's Bulma! That idiot!" Yamcha swore.
Bulma jumped out of the helicopter with an, "oopise daisy!" Val would have thought the phrase comical in a different scenario. Purr flew out around her not long after. She hardly looked afraid. Val wished she could make herself feel that way.
"What are you doing here?" Yamcha asked.
Bulma stood up taller, saying, "we came to see Frieza. I didn't see him the whole time we were on Namek."
Yamcha countered, "to see him? Don't you know how dangerous he is?!"
She huffed back, "of course. He could just blow up the Earth if he wanted to. It doesn't matter if we hide. So I want to see what he looks like."
Val looked at her, surprised by brashness of it, envying that she half wished she could run and hide herself, but that was indeed pointless, as Bulma said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling a strong wave of calm and focus wash over her. Her hands stopped shaking and her stomach eased up, but the fear was still there to be faced. She barely reached for the heat in her hands, just to know it was there before giving it a shake away. She looked down at the bracelets, mind racing. If they could not win, she would die trying along with the others.
She sensed more movement. She looked up upon hearing Yamcha call out to the next two people who arrived, "Tien! Chiaotzu!"
Val looked over at the two of them, seeing both dressed for the colder climate of their rural mountain village. She watched both of them shrug off the warmer outer clothes and toss them down. She looked at Tien, suddenly remembering her phone, off and in her pocket like a heavy weight. His scowl locked not on her, but on Vegeta. "Vegeta, you're still hovering around?" Val felt her stomach drop at the possiblity of an argument between the two of them.
Vegeta looked at him, amused. "Is there something you want to say?"
"I have so much to say it would make us sick," Tien said back. "You killed me. I can't understand how Val could stand to still live with you, even after coming to Earth."
Tien held his hand out towards her. She hesitated, not wanting to get caught up in anything. She stepped forward, going to stand next to his right side. He took her hand, partly stepping to stand in front of her. Vegeta snickered at the scene. "She doesn't need your protection from me. I've seen her manage to get a hit off of Napa before she cursed him to die," he goaded.
She looked at him, placing her other hand on Tien's inner forearm and shook her head. "I never touched him, so that curse never took hold," she reminded him. "Nor the one for Frieza to die at the hands of what he fears. The one for him that set was find all seven dragon balls, which backfired on him when he didn't know the password."
Vegeta cocked his head up at Tien, but kept looking at her. "Curse him yet?" he goaded. Val heard Tien growl under his breathe. She tightened her grip on him, willing her hands to stay cool. "Looks like she wants to keep you in line."
"Hold on, this isn't the time to settle this," Yamcha interrupted the tension.
Vegeta grunted, asking, "but if you think you know her better than I do, what's the name the Namekian gave her?"
"The what?" Tien asked. He looked down at her, making her feel like she wanted to shrink away. He was still seeking after her Anthromorph name, not realizing that was what it was, and was not something she wanted him to know.
"The name she was called by the Namekian she was with before he died. What is it?" Vegeta pressed.
"You have another name?" Bulma asked, jumping into the conversation.
"What is it?" Yamcha asked, sounding just as curious.
Val let go of Tien and raised her hands up, feeling herself start to flounder under the weight of everyone's eyes. She did not want to tell them, any of them; not now, not yet, not ever. "It's... it's... private... It's- I can't share it- I-"
"It's Chimera," a strong, deep voice cut right through the noise of the conversation.
Val blinked, not knowing the word said. She looked over at a nearby ridge, seeing Piccolo standing there. She felt a small smile come across her face. She could just barely sense him, trying in effort to do so. She threw him a curious look, feeling half guilty, half grateful for the quick thinking lie that she did not deem to correct.
"It's Piccolo. How long has he been there?" Yamcha asked.
"Chimera?" Vegeta said the name like a question. He looked over at her. She brought one hand up to her necklace, and did not look or say anything back to him.
"Chimera, huh?" Bulma said. "That's actually a pretty fitting name."
"How so?" Yamcha asked. "What does it mean?"
Bulma explained confidently, "well in Ancient Greco-Roman culture, a chimera was a fire breathing she-monster that was a mix of three animals. Her hands burn when she places curses, so that sort of like fire and she is a mix of who knows how many alien races. In modern science, a chimera refers to someone who has unique and different genetic traits. Also fits."
Vegeta looked over at her. "How do you know all that?"
"Crack a book open once and a while," Bulma commented back. "We've got some with pictures in them," she teased.
Val felt a chill run anew down her spine. She sensed around for why: Frieza's ship was landing. It got everyone's attention off her and back to the sky.
"This looks bad. Is it really Frieza?" Tien asked, sounding as nervous as she felt.
"It seems..." Yamcha hummed out.
"Shut up now and hide your kis, idiots. They have scouters," Vegeta instructed. "The Namekian did it a little while ago. I'm impressed. He arrived not long after we did." He looked over from Piccolo to Val, asking her, "sure you want to be here, knowing what will happen if you're taken alive?"
She looked and him and took a stealing breath. "Too late to run now," she commented. She tightened her grip on her necklace.
"What would happen?" Tien asked her softly, probably meant to be only loud enough for her to hear.
She shook her head, whispering dismissively, "I'll tell you later." She brought her hands down in front of her, one hand on one bracelet, poised and ready to take it off. She kept her hand resting there, watching Gohan and Krillin arrive and hearing the others call them over.
"Goku's still not here yet?" Yamcha asked out loud, sounding disappointed.
"They're here!" Piccolo called over to them, walking down to join their group.
Val closed her eyes, taking another deep breath. Her hands stayed at the ready to remove the bracelets. She watched the ship land not far from where they were, with an odd thought coming to her mind that if she get in there, it might be a gold mine compared to gold bars that were the flash drives she had been given by Vegeta. She reminded herself that the chances of her getting a chance at that were slim to none.
"They landed over there!" Chiaotzu said, pointing in the direction.
"That's Frieza all right. He's alive!" Gohan pointed out.
"There's someone else with him!" Krillin said.
"No one fly! Understood?!" Vegeta barked. "We have to get close quietly so that they don't detect us!"
"Wait a sec," Yamcha interjected. "Was Frieza's power always this huge?"
"This is nothing. He can increase it a lot more," Val explained.
Tien asked, "and you all fought against this monster?"
"This isn't funny!" Yamcha griped. "What are we supposed to do when we do get close? One of these monsters is hard enough to handle! Now there are two! There's nothing we can do!"
"What do you plan to do?" Piccolo asked him. "Rot here? Do as you wish. We already know that can't out right defeat both of them."
Vegeta commented, darkly amused, "to tell you the truth, unless someone has a plan," he looked down at Val's wrists, "it's the end of the world."
"Damn, I'm going to die right after being brought back!" Yamcha complained.
Val ignored him, looking over at Vegeta instead. It seemed he understood the semblance of plan she had in her own head. She slipped one bracelet off and then another. She put them in her pocket. "What are you doing?" Tien asked, taking a few steps away from her.
"Didn't you already curse Frieza though?" Bulma asked, picking up on the conversation.
"Yes, but not King Cold," she answered, feeling her hands start to tremble anew. She reached for the heat, feeling a quick pulse of it dance under her palms.
"If we can somehow get you there and you get an opening, do you know what you will say?" Vegeta asked. She nodded, but felt uncertain what words would be best that would keep him from not hurting the others and get him to leave this planet alone and in peace afterwards. He grunted. "If you fail, die trying," he advised. She nodded again, this time with more emphasis. She tried not to dwell on what the most likely outcome was going to be and how she could get King Cold to kill her before he realized what she was.
"Wait, what's the plan now?" Tien asked.
"She curses King Cold to get him to turn on Frieza instead of us," Piccolo answered.
"That's a terrible plan!" Tien exclaimed. His hand reached for her, but then recoiled when she allowed a flush of flames burn along the edges of her arms.
"Unless you got any better ideas, get her an opening," Vegeta replied.
Everyone got quiet after that. Val sensed Frieza, King Cold, and half a dozen others come out of the ship. She kept her breath as quiet as death, feeling her ears draw back. Then she sensed another ki, not sure where to place it. It flared suddenly, knocking out the six other kis unexpectedly. She gasped at that, and was not the only one.
"What? What's the matter with you?" Bulma asked, looking around at them.
"An enormous ki suddenly appeared and many kis instantly disappeared," Krillin explained.
"What's going on?" Yamcha asked.
"What happened on the other side of the mountain over there?" Chiaotzu asked.
The new ki flared suddenly ten fold, much to everyone's shock.
"What was that?" Tien asked.
"It's my dad!" Gohan exclaimed. "It's the same size ki as Dad's when he was on Namek!"
Val sensed the fighting between the new ki and Frieza, high energy blasts increasing the stakes. The two flew higher in the air. Val looked up, barely able to see them fighting against the harsh sunlight. She shielded her eyes with her hand on her forehead to see the outline of a blonde fighter and Frieza. The blonde fighter cut Frieza down, and blasted him away. The way his blonde hair flowed was just like how Goku's had as a Super Saiyan.
"That was definitely Frieza," Vegeta gasped.
"He actually could instantly vaporize Frieza," Gohan added.
"Wow! You guys must have really great eyesight to see so well," Puur commented.
"Goku became so strong, and in such a short time," Bulma said. "Earth has been saved again."
"That wasn't Goku," Val corrected her.
"Eh?" Bulma voiced.
Val shook her head at the confusion. "It seems to be another Super Saiyan," she reasoned, unsure how that was even possible though.
Vegeta took off flying at that, with Val and the others flying after him. Yamcha ended up carrying Bulma so she could come along. Val felt a chill go over her spine as they all watched the blonde fighter take out King Cold like it was nothing, even as King Cold try to use his own sword against him. He blasted him twice over, like it was nothing. Then he set his sights on the space ship.
"Don't destroy the ship!" Val blurted out, shouting down at the blonde fighter.
"Scavenger," Vegeta called her. "Three flash sticks not enough for you?"
"Flash drives," she corrected.
The blonde fighter looked back at them now, put his hand down that was aiming at the ship. Val heaved a sigh of relief, feeling her palms itch at the temptation to get into the ship. He sheathed his sword and relaxed his energy. His hair returned to an unexpectedly grey color. He shouted up to them, "I'm going to meet Goku! Want to come with me?"
"What?" Val heard a few of the others echoed each other.
"How does he know Dad?" Gohan asked.
"It'll be near here. Follow me!" the fighter called over to them.
"Who is he?" Vegeta muttered to himself. "A Super Saiyan? Impossible! Besides the three of us, there are no other Saiyans."
The fighter took off, flying at a bit of a slow pace. "I'm going to follow him," Gohan decided.
"But we don't know anything about him," Krillin pointed out.
"I'm going, too. He defeated Frieza, and he knows Goku. He couldn't be an enemy. I want to find out more about him," Tien decided.
"But is he really going to welcome Goku back?" Yamcha asked.
"And how does he know him anyway? This is weird," Bulma commented.
Val bit her lip, looking back and forth between the fighter and the ship, not sure where she wanted to go. Vegeta snapped his fingers at her, drawing her attention to him. "Plenty of time to scavenge later, little bird, not to mention turn off the tracking device if the ship has one. Let's follow him and see what he's up to," Vegeta decided.
Val gave one last look at the ship, figuring the tracking device would likely be turned off. She nodded and followed after the others. The fighter landed and tossed out a capsule that held a mini fridge that looked different from the current models made by Capsule Corps.
"Watch out. He just brought out something strange," Yamcha cautioned.
The fighter knelt down in front of the mini fridge, opening it up. "Goku won't be here for another three hours. There are a lot of drinks. Feel free to help yourselves," he offered.
"Three hours?" Val said to herself, trying calculate what she could do in the ship with that amount of time. She did find herself thirsty, tempted to take a drink herself. She reached into her pockets, pulling her bracelets out and slipping them back on, seeing there was no need to have them off anymore.
"I'll take one," Bulma said first.
"Me, too," Gohan echoed. "Then we'll just take our own drinks."
"So this is a specially made refrigerator," Bulma commented, studying the outside of it.
Everyone took a drink. Val waited until the others drank first before she did. The flavor of it was slightly different than she expected. She studied the can, having tried this drink before, with the can design looking almost the same. She did not feel any adverse effects though, and kept drinking. She looked over at the fighter, finding him familiar, but unable to place why.
"Have we met?" Bulma asked him.
"No," the fighter answered.
"How do you know my dad?" Gohan asked.
"I've only heard of him. I've never seen him," the fighter answered, sounding oddly excited.
"Then how do you know Goku will be here in three more hours?" Bulma asked.
"Uh..." he voiced. "Sorry... I can't tell you that."
"Why not?" Vegeta asked gruffly. "Who the hell are you, anyway? And where did you get such power?"
The fighter looked away from him. "Sorry, I can't tell you," he excused again.
"Stop pretending! The only Saiyan are me, Kakarot, and his half-earthling son. Which is this brat," he snapped, pointing over at Gohan. "Besides the three of us, there can't be any other Saiyans."
"But the truth is, he did become a Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza," Gohan pointed out.
"And Saiyan should all have black hair," Vegeta gripped additionally.
Bulma shrugged and teased, "maybe there's another Saiyan out there and he met another Anthromorph?"
Val wrinkled her nose at that very thought. "There's no more Anthromorphs left besides me," she pointed out.
Vegeta shook his head, "not possible. Besides, a Saiyan wouldn't risk having a child with such a weak species. Chances are, the child would just be like the weaker parent, and have no Saiyan traits at all." Val nodded, thinking how Raditz had been willing to risk it when he kidnapped her and how grateful she was that she never grew while he was around.
Bulma meanwhile was looking over the fighter's jacket. "Oh, how come you have the Capsule Corp insignia on your jacket? Are you one of our employees?"
"No," the fighter answered.
"Even that's a secret?" she asked. "You can't even reveal your name or age, too, can you?"
"My name, no, but I am seventeen," he answered.
"You can't even tell us your name? That's strange," Tien commented.
"Yeah, why be so secretive?" Yamcha asked.
Bulma jumped to the fighter's defense. "Guys, don't ask so many questions. You'll embarrass him! After all, he saved us and the Earth."
Val studied the fighter a bit more, wondering where he came from. She shook her drink, finishing it off. She set it down on the ground by her feet, not sure really what to do with it. Then she tapped her foot angstily. She looked over at the area where the ship still was. "How much longer?" she asked.
The fighter looked up at her, a bit reverent in the way he was looking at her. "More like two and a half hours now," he answered.
She bit her lip, looking back over where the ship was. "I'm going to go check out Frieza's ship. I can be back beforehand," she announced.
"Vulture," Vegeta called her again. She huffed at him, not saying anything back.
"Should you go alone?" Tien asked.
She looked over at him, feeling a bit nervous, but realizing she had been missing him the passed two days. "He killed everyone that was on that ship," she pointed out.
"Take someone with you," Piccolo insisted.
She looked over at him and then around at the others. She was first tempted to ask Bulma, who had brains but lacked brawns. Then she looked between Yamcha, Krillin, Gohan, and Chiaotzu, the four less likely to to trigger any distrust. She looked around, waiting for one of the four of them to volunteer rather than her asking one of them.
"I'll go with you just in case," Tien offered before anyone else could.
She hesitated, but then nodded. "Okay," she said before walking in that direction. She heard him following after her.
"That was tense," she heard Krillin comment.
"There's been trouble in paradise," she heard Bulma explain before the two of them took off flying.