Based on MasakoX's What If series "What if Gine went with Goku to Earth?", but a retcon with some changes of my own on how I think the story would have went down had Goku's mother escaped planet Vegeta with him.
DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Dragonball Minus, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, and Dragonball GT are all owned by FUNimation, Toei Animation, and Akira Toriyama.
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CHAPTER 54: REINFORCEMENTS
"Here you go, sweetie." Chi-Chi offered a small piece of crackers to her son.
"Are you sure, Mommy? It's the last of the rations." Little Gohan pointed out.
Chi-Chi smiled sadly. "It's okay, Gohan. I'll manage, you're more important."
Little Gohan looked torn between his mother's well-being the gnawing pain in his stomach from the lack of food. But his hunger won out.
"Thank you." He said gratefully before nibbling away at the cracker, savoring each bite.
They both sat huddled under a tree, somewhere out in the wilderness, changing locations ever so often to avoid detection. But Chi-Chi had lost track of how long they had been hiding. Gohan said it had been almost five days by tracking the path of each sun at its zenith, but even a prodigy like Gohan had to admit it was hard to keep track of time on a planet with three suns and no night.
Chi-Chi tried to ignore her own growling stomach. But it hurt too much, and so did her heart from the pain of their situation. It had become truly dire now that they had just run out of food. They still had no idea where everyone else is (probably dead if Vegeta hunted them all down), and they had no means of escaping the planet either.
And Kami, Tien, Chiaotzu, millions of innocent people, and the Eternal Dragon will remain dead too...
But Chi-Chi blocked those thoughts out, not when they needed to focus on surviving.
She looked up at the green sky, lost in hunger-pinged thoughts and trying to keep a lookout. When she picked up Little Gohan and fled the battle all as fast as she could all those days ago, she heard Vegeta shout his threat out into the yonder how he will hunt them all down and kill any native who gets in his way.
The Namekians were the most peaceful people Chi-Chi had ever seen. Spending all day caring for the alien gardens, telling stories, raising families, and pursuing their hobbies of story-telling and personal growth, that she could not stand the idea of putting them in harm's way to that monster. So, she stayed away from any village and hid out in the wild, and only once returning to the wreckage of their ship to salvage what she could but found almost nothing of use.
Chi-Chi swallowed to try to satiate the nausea induced from hunger. To help stretch their food rations she had tried hunting and fishing, but the alien game meat of Namek was much tougher and saltier than Earth and did not agree well with their stomachs. But what other choice did they have to survive? Lately though, catching game had been more difficult. Any of the animals that they usually tried to kill had made themselves scarce. And while there were plenty of streams, there were less fish to catch somehow. Chi-Chi had no idea why, but it certainly did not help their situation.
I wanna go home! Chi-Chi wanted to scream out. The hopelessness of it all seemed too much. But she couldn't fall apart now, not when her little boy needed her...
"We should get going again." She said as calmly as could, trying not to let the despair she felt be heard in her voice.
"Okay." Little Gohan obediently packed up what little supplies they had and got up. It was his idea when they fled into the wild to not make camp in one place for too long to lower the risk of being found by Vegeta. Chi-Chi found it a great way to help keep her mind off of their situation with a grueling walk under the suns finding a new place or keeping an eye out for Vegeta, and that's what she felt like she needed right now...
...
Chi-Chi led Little Gohan has they picked a direction and started walking, thinking it used the least amount of their ki to be nearly undetectable.
But the problem was that Namek looked the same in nearly every direction, all the same monotonous looking blue vegetation, indistinguishable cliff faces, and trees. For all Chi-Chi knew they were going in circles. But at least they were moving.
She lost track of time again as they walked, the three suns beating down on them harshly when...
"Mommy, look!" Little Gohan cried out, pointing to something not too far away.
Chi-Chi looked, uncertain if it was any good news or just Vegeta coming towards them, but it was just a crater from what she could tell. But her eye caught a glimpse of something round and metallic inside the crater. It looked familiar...
Then she recognized it. A pod, the same design her dear husband and mother-in-law arrived on Earth in so long ago...
"That's Vegeta's ship!"
Little Gohan suddenly sprinted off towards it. Her eyes bulging in alarm.
"Wait, Gohan!" She cried out before taking off after him.
She caught up to him just as they reached the edge of the crater, gazing down at the Saiyan pod sitting in the dirt, totally unguarded.
"Don't you know what this means, Mommy?" Little Gohan's eyes lit up at her, hope filled them for the first time in days. "We can get out of here! We can take his ship and go back home!"
Chi-Chi felt a surge of hope flow through her. Any chance of getting her son far away from this place was an allure she couldn't resist, and here was an opportunity to do so! It looked big enough to fit them both. She's sure her little boy genius could figure out how to fly it, for he was smarter than anyone she knew, even Bulma. They could...
Guilt snuffed out whatever surge of hope she felt after the thought of their friends.
"We can't, Gohan." Chi-Chi muttered despairingly.
"What?!" Little Gohan couldn't believe what he heard. Was his mother really turning away their only chance of survival?! "Why not?!" He demanded to know.
She gazed down at her little boy, his eyes flooded with uncomprehending tears like she had just took away all his hopes and dreams. Maybe she did if it meant her condemning both of them to staying on this planet. But as a precious to her as her only child was, she couldn't in good conscience abandon her friends to certain death.
"We can't leave the others here." She calmly explained.
Gohan opened his mouth to protest but no words came out. He knew she was right. What he was proposing was beyond selfish. No good friend would leave theirs behind to die. And despite running several scenarios in his mind about how they could use the pod to fly back and forth between Earth and Namek to rescue the others (assuming they find them first, were not killed already, or didn't starve to death before then), Gohan knew it would not work either.
"You're right." He said, crestfallen.
Chi-Chi felt her eyes tearing up at hearing the despair in Gohan's voice. "I'm sorry, sweetie." She wished so much to take this chance too.
She looked back towards the Saiyan ship and wondered if she should destroy it like Vegeta did to their own ship, if to not only to spite and trap him here too but to also remove the temptation to flee. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a good idea, for it may enrage him enough to just kill everyone on the planet.
Like he's very much doing right now, she remembered. But then, another came to her...
"You should take it." Chi-Chi declared.
"What?!" Little Gohan shouted incredulously, then shook his head. "No! I can't go alone! What about you?! What about the others like you said?!"
She smiled down sadly at him. "I'll be fine. You're more important than anything. You can go back to Earth and I'll look for-"
"NO!" Little Gohan was crying now, clutching her. "No, I won't leave you here!"
Chi-Chi knelt down and took her son into her arms, her own eyes tearing up.
"Gohan, listen to me." She said as she withdrew from their hug and held him by the shoulders so he could look her in the eye. "Don't worry about me, okay? You take the ship and go back home. Tell everyone what happened. Your father..." Chi-Chi's throat tightened, suddenly overwhelmed with grief that she may never see Kakarot again, nor their home on Mount Paozu, or her own father, or all their friends...
Not now. She had to convince her son to leave. He was all that mattered. "Your father will-"
"WILL DO NOTHING TO HELP YOU!"
Chi-Chi and Little Gohan froze in place. They didn't need to look up to know it was Vegeta as he fired an energy blast at their feet.
"GET DOWN!" Chi-Chi tackled Little Gohan to protect him from the resulting explosion that sent them flying away. Debris of rock and dirt rained down all around as Chi-Chi and Gohan tumbled over each other until they came to a stop, she still clutching her son close to her. She winced as she felt her back had been slightly burnt by the explosion.
"HAHAHAHA!" Vegeta cackled from high above them. "Trying to steal my ship, huh? Well, nice try, but there will be no escape for either of you!"
Chi-Chi opened her eyes and saw Vegeta through the dissipating smoke, grinning sadistically at them as he hovered not too far up in the air. She cursed herself for not feeling his presence approaching sooner, too distracted by figuring out what to do with his ship. Perhaps he had set a trap, knowing that his ship was the only means off the planet. And they fell for it.
Vegeta lowered himself to the ground and stalked slowly toward them, like a predator taunting its prey.
"I've spent far too long scouring this planet for you cowards. I'll admit it was fun wiping out a few villages to find you, but hide n' seek is now over."
Chi-Chi glowered at him and stood up in her fighting stance, putting herself between Vegeta and Little Gohan.
"Take another step closer and I'll kick your teeth in!"
"Mom, wait!" Little Gohan panicked, pure terror in his voice.
"Gohan, stay behind me!" Chi-Chi held an arm over him to shield him from Vegeta's hateful gaze.
The sadistic grin on the Saiyan's face grew even more wicked.
"Hahahaha, you think you can save your brat from me?" He laughed mockingly. "Tsh. Pathetic, just like Kakarot. How fitting he choose to rut with a weakling like you."
Chi-Chi's blood boiled over. "Don't you dare speak of my husband like that! He is a far greater man than you will ever be!"
Vegeta scoffed. "Don't fool yourself, woman. You, your gaggle of friends, and that low-class clown of yours may have gotten the jump on me last time; but none of you are a match for the true leader of the Saiyan race! Me! Prince Vegeta! The strongest Saiyan there is!"
"And yet my Kakarot still kicked your butt singlehandedly and sent you running. You're really not much of a big bad scary prince now, are ya?"
The smirk on his face changed to a deadly sneer at her words.
"I've had enough of your insolence, you wench. It's time to make you and your brat pay! And I'll find the rest of your friends and make them pay too!"
"The only insolence here is you, you monster!" She spat.
He charged just as she did. They met with their arms locked before Chi-Chi threw a kick to knock Vegeta back, but her attack was less than what Vegeta could return as he returned with a punch into her side, knocking the wind out of her.
The spared back and forth, but it was clear that for all of Chi-Chi's speed and agility, Vegeta overpowered her every move.
"Heheh. You're fast for an Earthling but like I said before: you are no match for me!"
Just as he finished gloating, Vegeta felt a kick in his side before he saw it, knocking him back a few paces.
Gohan leapt away from Vegeta to put some distance between them, landing beside his mother who was ready to pounce again.
"Good job, sweetie!" Chi-Chi appraised.
"We can take him together, Mom! Just like last time!"
Vegeta regained his footing and glowered at the half-Saiyan. "You got a death wish too, boy?"
"You leave my mom alone, you big bully!" Little Gohan shouted back.
Vegeta scoffed. "Heh. Fine, I'll finish what I started on Earth by killing you both!"
He charged just as they did, the three of them clashing in a flurry of blows that both mother and son seemed to be dealing more to the prince than he was to them. The smaller and more agile Earthlings being faster and more agile than their opponent, but whose raw strength seemed to protect him from the most damaging of blows.
But the prince was cunning and used his greater experience and ruthlessness to great effect, dodging out of the way for Gohan and Chi-Chi to nearly hit each other countless times before they turned back on him. They were quick to recover, which he hadn't anticipated. They were much stronger than when he last fought them on Earth, but so was he.
Little Gohan phased out and away to point both open hands and the prince before firing.
"DOUBLE SUNDAY!"
Vegeta leapt out of the way of the twin purple beams, only to have Chi-Chi phase in front of him with her cupped hands in his face.
"KAMEHAMEHA!"
The blue energy blast engulfed Vegeta and Chi-Chi, the shock sending Chi-Chi rocketing backwards and smoke filling the air.
She recovered enough to halt her freefall and eye the cloud of billowing smoke, hoping she had done enough damage to-
A dark-blue blur rushed from the cloud to slam into Gohan, sending him flying away unconsciously before the blur reached Chi-Chi before she could register Vegeta's fist plowed into her abdomen, her vision streaked with pain-filled tears.
"Foolish tactic!" Vegeta seethed out, him barely scratched from the point-blank range blast. He drove his knee up into Chi-Chi's face, feeling her nose snap from the impact and her own self thrown into the air. Then Vegeta phased above her, his fists locked together and brought down on her head, sending her plowing into the ground below. The impact creating a small crater where she landed.
Chi-Chi felt the inside of her skull abuzz from the pain she was in. She could barely move her head; think she may be concussed. But before she could get up, she cried out as a knee plowed into her gut yet again, crushing her diaphragm and forcing all the air out of her lungs. Vegeta was kneeling directly on top of her.
"Time to put an end to this." Vegeta declared.
He wrapped his gloved hands around Chi-Chi's neck and squeezed. Instinct took over, and Chi-Chi writhed beneath Vegeta's death grip around her crushed windpipe, kicking her feet and clawing at Vegeta's hands, but his grip was as immovable as a stone statue.
Vegeta's sick smile was all Chi-Chi could see as her vision went dark, her eyes rolling back into their sockets as her brain ran out of air...
Suddenly, Little Gohan's voice cried out from a distance not too far off.
"LET GO OF MY MOM, OR ELSE!"
Vegeta's grip around her neck eased slightly as he turned to look at Little Gohan.
"Or else what?" He impulsively asked, but Vegeta's expression turned into one of concern. He saw Little Gohan standing a few dozen meters away on the edge of the crater where the Saiyan pod lay in, and the boy had an arm outstretched towards the ship with an energy blast aimed right at it.
"Or else I'll destroy your ship, and we'll all be stranded here together!" Little Gohan finished his threat.
Chi-Chi wheezed beneath Vegeta's grip, barely able to draw breath but not yet asphyxiated. She wanted to scream at Little Gohan to run, to forget about her, but she couldn't.
Vegeta eyed the boy with cautious calculation for a few seconds, looking genuinely afraid. Perhaps he may actually heed to Gohan's demand...
But then his face twisted into laughter which unsettled Gohan.
"Clever move, boy. But there's one small problem with your little threat there." Vegeta smirked. "What makes you think I won't keep strangling the life out of your mother here if you do destroy my ship?"
Little Gohan was caught off-guard by Vegeta's question, realizing he hadn't thought through how to use leverage against the prince, and that moment of hesitation gave Vegeta the opening he needed.
Before anyone could blink, Vegeta let go of Chi-Chi and suddenly phased around Little Gohan, arms wrapped around him, pinning him in an arm lock and hands around the boy's head, ready to twist and snap his neck.
"And that's your second and final mistake, boy." Vegeta half-mocked and half-scolded. "Like I said: you're a pathetic disgrace to our race like your father."
Chi-Chi coughed as she drew breath again, easing the skin around her throat, but froze in horror when she saw Vegeta holding Gohan hostage.
"NO! LET HIM GO!" Chi-Chi scrambled to her feet to tackle the prince.
Vegeta pulled Gohan's head hard to the side in his grip, feeling the boy cry out in pain. "OW!"
"Take another step closer, and I'll snap your brat's neck like a toothpick." Venom dripped in Vegeta's voice.
Chi-Chi's feet felt glued to the ground, unable to move.
"Mommy, help me!" Gohan cried out, his pleas for help cutting into her very being.
"Mommy, help me!" Vegeta mocked in baby-voice. "Listen to your brat, woman. Unless you want him to die. Surrender yourself completely."
Never had Chi-Chi felt so powerless in a single moment. Her love for her child could overpower anything in the universe, at least until now. Having fought the prince, she knew now that she wouldn't be able to get to him in time before one flick of his wrist and her only child is gone forever. Curse her and her weakness!
Chi-Chi glared at the prince with pure hatred and despair in her eyes, knowing she could do nothing against him now no matter how hard she tried.
Vegeta couldn't have felt more pleased with himself. What a glorious day this was. It was far more trouble than it was worth, but now he has a chance to get back at Kakarot. In more than one way, so it seemed if he has his wife and child at his mercy. His newfound bargaining position drew possibilities in Vegeta's mind that he could salivate over forever. Sure, this earth-woman is nothing like a Saiyan woman, but he could take some pleasure from her if he wanted to if he played his cards right...
A wave of revulsion swept over Chi-Chi as if she picked up what this new hostage situation could mean for her. No, she would not just give up now. She would never surrender Gohan or herself to this monster! Never!
"NEVER!" She screamed.
Vegeta's expression contorted to one of confusion before to alarm as Chi-Chi pointed her fingers to her forehead in a chillingly familiar attack move...
"I'LL BURN YOU TO A CRISP!"
She fired the green annihilation beam at him just as he lept up to safety, but not before he got caught in the blast dropped his hostage as the blast sailed past him by mere inches, detonating not too far off and throwing them all away by the force of the blast.
Taking the opening, she charged forward and swept Gohan up in her grasp.
"Don't worry, sweetie! Mommy's got you!" She said as she started running blindly away from the scene...
But before she could get far, pain exploded from her back as Vegeta slammed his knee into her spine, hearing it crack out loud. Chi-Chi's vision blacked out from the shock of it, and her no-longer functioning legs gave out under her, tumbling end over end as Gohan flew from her grasp, crashing to the ground with her.
When all was still, Chi-Chi lay face down in the dirt, her eyes stinging with pain and despair. She could feel how broken she was literally. Her spine bent in an unnatural way, unable to feel her legs, and felt like she may be bleeding out internally. The fact that she was still conscious was a testament to her strength.
As Gohan groaned from the impact, Vegeta landed besides Chi-Chi's broken body. She managed to look up with the corner of her eye at him. He starred back at her with pure contempt.
"Nice try, woman. But I'm afraid that wasn't enough." He gloated.
He takes a step towards her and pins his foot into her broken back, making her scream out in agony. It was a pain she never experienced before, worse than any she had ever felt in her life. Worse than nearly getting cut in half, worse than getting beaten within an inch of her life, and worse than giving birth. It was a pain she wouldn't wish on anyone.
"Ahhhhhh! No! Please!" She begged. But Vegeta was thrilled by her screams for mercy, so he drove his foot deeper, snapping more vertebrae and making her scream even more. It hurt so bad Chi-Chi wanted to throw up and pass out. Worse, she wanted to die.
As much as Vegeta relished her screams, he felt now was time to take his revenge.
"Time to pay for your husband's mistake of not killing me." He hissed, and raised a hand pointed towards her face, readying to vaporize her.
Chi-Chi felt herself going cold, losing feeling in the rest of her body and starting to lose consciousness. Her eyes rolled over found her her son lying not too far away. He rolled over to see what was happening.
Perhaps this was her fate, and the fate of her son. And she was so sorry it had come to this, dying on a faraway world at the hands of a murderous psychopath. There were still so many things she wanted to say and do but will never get the chance to anymore. She wanted to curse Kakarot for letting this monster escape, and she wanted to weep for her little boy will never grow up to become a handsome scholar who would marry and give her many grandchildren but would have to watch her die like this. Oh Gohan, she thought. I'm so sorry...
"MOMMY, NO!" He cried out just as Vegeta was about to fire his final blow...
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a boot flew into Vegeta's jaw, snapping his head around and sending him crashing into a nearby cliff face.
Two pairs of legs touched down near Chi-Chi, both clad in the orange Turtle School gi that she was all too familiar with. Could this be real? Her dying mind wondered.
"CHI-CHI!" Krillin knelt beside her and gazed into her eyes looking for vitals.
"MOMMY!" Gohan was suddenly by her side as Yamcha had picked him back up.
"We gotta help her, she's dying!" Krillin cried out.
"Hang on! I can help her!" Came another voice, one Chi-Chi couldn't remember.
Through the fog of her bleeding out and loss of her nervous system, Chi-Chi suddenly felt waves of energy pulsing through her body from two tiny alien hands pressed gently on her back. All of a sudden, the bleeding inside her stopped, her spine seemed to miraculously straighten itself out. Life was being returned to her! Was this some sort of miracle or magic?!
When the healing energy dissipated, to her own shock, Chi-Chi sat up.
"Mommy, you're okay!" Gohan shrieked as he threw himself into her arms. Overjoyed herself that she wasn't dead, and that her son was okay, she burst into tears as gripped onto Gohan with all her might.
"I thought I lost you!" Little Gohan wept as he buried his face into the crook of her neck.
"It's okay, sweetie. I'm here." She held Gohan not intending on letting him go.
As she looked up it was just then that she realized that Krillin, Yamcha, and Bulma were indeed standing there with them.
"You guys are alive!" She cried out in joy. Still gripping Gohan she threw her free arm around them in a group hug, all of them ecstatic to see her and Gohan.
"Heheh! Sure are!" Krillin quipped as they parted. "Glad we got to you two just in time too!"
"But, how did you... " She struggled to find the words for all the questions that she suddenly wanted to ask them after being apart for so long, and not the least of which how they pulled her back from death's door.
"That was me, Mrs. Son."
Chi-Chi looked down to see a young Namekian by her side. How did she fail to notice him before?
"Dende?!" She suddenly remembered.
"Dende!" Little Gohan dislodged himself from his mother's grasp and threw himself into Dende's arms, laughing in relief. "You're okay too?! It's a miracle!"
"Not really." Said Yamcha. "He and the rest of us got some cool new abilities unlocked."
"Huh?" Both mother and son gasped. "How?!" Gohan asked.
"By Guru!" Bulma spoke up. There was something different about her, Chi-Chi noticed. She looked like the same old Bulma Briefs but something in her eyes showed a new kind of sharpness in them, and something more profound. "Why, I'm beginning to see and understand things I never thought possible! I mean, watch this!"
Bulma reached out an arm towards a random rock and it suddenly floated up towards her. Both Chi-Chi and Gohan were stunned by the display.
"Would you look at that! Telekinesis! " Bulma continued. "I can see how you guys have been able to do the things you do all this time! And that's just for starters! I can actually feel myself getting smarter by the hour! Things are much clearer to me now! With my intellect growing I can-"
The sound of exploding rocks cut her off as Vegeta emerged from the cliff face, they turned to him ready to face off with the Prince again. This time, none of them looked afraid.
"Wha... YOU?!" Vegeta looked as baffled as he looked angry.
Yamcha stepped up and spoke for them. "Surprised to see us again, your majesty?!"
Vegeta wiped the blood dripping from the side of his face. "It doesn't matter. Now that you're all here I can finally DESTROY YOU!"
"Bulma, Chi-Chi, Gohan, Dende, stay back!" Yamcha declared. "Krillin and I will take care of this jerk."
"Yeah, let's go!" Krillin cried out as both men leapt after the prince.
To everyone's surprise, Vegeta wasn't fast enough before he caught a punch to the face, followed by kicks to the back and the side as he desperately tried to get away from them. But both Krillin and Yamcha were faster and stronger than ever before, and their power was growing slowly by the minute. Vegeta could sense it. He wasn't sure how, and it scared him. Something was awfully wrong here.
Desperate to escape the gangup, Vegeta yelled out an energy shock to blast the two earthlings away, but Krillin and Yamcha held their places in midair, and instead countered.
"WOLF FANG FIST!" Yamcha's fist connected to Vegeta square in the solar plexus, cracking his armor and the breastbone underneath.
"KAMEHAMEHA!" Krillin fired his school's signature attack as Yamcha leapt away and before Vegeta could recover, engulfing the prince and sending crashing into the ground with a massive explosion. And, it just so happened that Vegeta crashed into the same crater that his ship was in, and it provided no cushioning to his fall as it crumbled beneath him and disintegrated in the blast.
After the smoke cleared, both Krillin and Yamcha landed beside the fallen prince as he tried to get back up, coughing up blood and his tattered armor sizzling from the heat. Pieces of his Saiyan pod littered the ground.
"Not so tough now, aren't ya, your highness?" Yamcha mocked.
"Yeah! You tell him, babe!" Bulma cheered from the side. Both Chi-Chi and Gohan just watched in stunned silence, amazed how their two friends had grown so strong while on the run. It made them wonder more about Guru and how he could unlock their powers too, but from the looks of things it seems like they already have a chance of defeating Vegeta once and for all.
Vegeta, having been literally beaten into the ground along with his honor after the blatant insult from this human male, could only seethe in pure hatred. And upon realizing that the metallic debris around him was what was left of his only means to escape the planet, something inside him snapped.
"You'll... YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" He screamed at Yamcha, feeling energy soaring through his veins as he leapt up to-
...Only to be met with two fists to the face that sent him crashing back into the ground, both his nose and his pride broken. He held his face nursing his pain while wailing like a child. Never had Vegeta felt so pathetic that he couldn't be more humiliated even if he tried.
This time, Krillin spoke. "No, Vegeta. It's you who will pay for all the pain and suffering you have caused to us. To our friends! To the people of this planet you slaughtered! And to people you killed on our planet too! And to all the countless others you attacked across space! It's time for you to face judgement!" He had never felt so big and vindictive in his life, and a part of Krillin deep down shamelessly enjoyed bringing a big bully like Vegeta to justice.
"Kill him, Krillin! Avenge my family!" Dende cried out, surprising Gohan and Chi-Chi. There were tears in his eyes.
"Gladly, my friend!" Krillin called back, and raised his arm towards the prince just as Yamcha did too.
"We won't make the same mistake as Kakarot did, not this time." Krillin said as both he and Yamcha charged up their killing blows.
Vegeta just lay there, ready to accept his fate. How could it have come to this?! How could the Saiyan Prince be reduced to a sniveling and broken-down weakling cowering before a bunch of Earthlings?! He felt a shame like no one could imagine. He had let his race down. He had let his bloodline and father down. And he did not want to imagine what awaited him in Hell...
Then he froze, and so did Krillin and Yamcha. And did the others.
They all looked up at the same time. They all felt it.
One, two, three, four, no... five energy signatures headed right towards them at high speed. They were far more powerful than any had ever felt before and are about to make planetfall any second.
"Do you feel that?" Krillin breathed, terror in his voice.
"Yeah, I do." Yamcha shivered. "And that sure ain't Gine, Raditz, and Kakarot unless they brought some friends along."
Vegeta gawked up at the sky too. If his hunch was right, he knew exactly who they were and why they were here. Frieza had managed to find out where he went after all.
He cursed himself. He had been so consumed with vengeance against the Earthlings that he spent too much time on this planet hunting them down, only to be beaten by them. And now the Ginyus were right on him. With his ship destroyed, there was no chance of escape. Not that he much hope of survival anyway...
Unless...
"Hahahahahahaha!" He started laughing, as heartily and threatening as he could, catching the Earthlings by surprise and unsettling them. Good, keep it up and try to rattle them, he thought. It was his only chance.
"A-ha! That's right, Earthlings! You think you had me now? Well guess again, because I've got reinforcements along the way!"
"What?!" The two men exclaimed in shock.
"Oh no... what do we do?!" Both Chi-Chi and Gohan clutched each other in fear. How many times could one lose hope, regain it, and lose it all again in one day?!
"Heheh." He cackled evilly; he had to be quick. "That's right, they are known as the Ginyus. They are the most feared warriors in the galaxy aside from myself, and they've come to back me up! So unless you all want to die, I suggest you surrender now or-"
"He's lying." Bulma said unfalteringly.
"Huh?!" They all turned to her.
"He is! I can tell how afraid he is of them as much as we are! Hell, I bet you anything that whoever they are..." She jabbed a finger up to the sky towards the approaching force then towards Vegeta's direction. "They are probably after him too! Aren't they, Mr. Vegeta?"
Vegeta didn't know what to say, and when the other humans turned to him to hear his speechlessness, he knew he had been caught in his lie. He was floored that a human wench would call him out like that and he was follish enough let his surprise betray him. Damn that woman! Damn it all!
Yamcha, amazed at this revelation, turned to his girlfriend. "Whoa! How'd you do that, babe?!"
Bulma tapped the side of her head. "It's all thanks to Guru, Yamcha! I now have a much acuter sense of what people are feeling or what they are thinking from just looking at them. Just like you guys and all your ki stuff!"
Vegeta's mind raced, now more desperate than ever before. He had to think of something. Anything!
"Well, if they are after him, maybe we can help them?" Krillin offered. "If we hand him over to them they might-"
"No, wait!" Vegeta suddenly said, surprising them all.
Vegeta felt revulsion for everything he was about to say, but given the circumstances, he had no other choice now.
Straightening up, he pretended to be as civil as he can, but he did not bother to hide his displeasure. "You're right, Earthlings. You called my bluff. I am afraid of them. But I assure you that they won't be your friends. Like I said, the Ginyus are one of the most elite killers in the universe aside from me of course, and they will kill you as surely as they are going to try and kill me."
They all looked to each other in worry, then realization sunk in.
"Are you suggesting that we spare you so you can help us fight them?" Yamcha demanded.
Vegeta sighed. "You said it, not me. Personally, I rather see them kill you all instead, but they are after me, yes. So, if you pathetic weaklings want any chance of survival, then I suggest we..." He tried to force out the words he loathed to utter. "...collaborate, to increase our chances."
"No way!" It was Chi-Chi who said it. "He killed Kami and tried to kill us all! Bulma, you just said that he's a liar! He could be trying to trick us! I say we kill him now and fight our way out!"
Bulma looked between her and Vegeta uncertainly. "I dunno, Chi-Chi. He may be right. We don't know what we're about to go up against."
"Are you serious?!" Chi-Chi shrieked incredulously. "You actually want to trust him now?!"
"We can feel how strong these guys are, Chi-Chi." Krillin pleaded. "Whoever they are, I don't think even with our new powers we can handle them alone!"
Yamcha turned to Vegeta as he was slightly moving and held out an open palm. "Don't you think about trying to escape, buddy! Or I'll blast you right here and now!"
"I'm a dead man either way, what does it matter?" Vegeta spat back.
"Yamcha please." Bulma cried out. "I know you don't like it, but it may be our only chance!"
"No, Bulma. Not yet it isn't. Gine, Raditz, and Kakaort are on their way, right?! They should be here soon!" He answered back.
"What?!" Vegeta, Chi-Chi, and Gohan all exclaimed in shock.
"Daddy and Grandma are coming here?!" Little Gohan jumped in joy. "Yeay! We're saved!"
"They should be here any time now, but..." Bulma hesitated. "I haven't heard from them since a few days ago. I hope they get here before..."
The time they had all spent discussing what they should do next had just sunk in five streaks of light shot across the sky and crashed into the ground not too far off from them.
"Too late." Vegeta muttered in defeat.
Just then, five alien figures emerged the smoldering craters in a neat line from shortest to tallest, flying over and landing before the gang before they could retreat.
"Recoome!"
"Burter!"
"Ginyu!"
"Juice!"
"Guldo!"
"And."
"We."
"Are."
"THE GINYU FORCE!"