Goku hesitates, looking at the purple-haired stranger with a complicated expression on his face.

"I'm not even sure that I can beat Vegeta... it'll be safer if we fight him together." he says, cracking his neck as he prepares for a difficult fight.

The stranger shakes his head, stepping towards Vegeta as he speaks. "He's just lost an arm, an eye, and his right lung was punctured. If you don't act fast, he'll die. Get him a Senzu Bean."

Goku's expression turns ugly, but he can't deny the stranger's words. With a rare scowl on his face, he lifts Raditz onto his shoulder, and then puts the index and middle fingers of his hand to his forehead, teleporting away.

As soon as Goku disappears, the stranger suddenly dashes forward, appearing in front of Vegeta before he can react. The Saiyan Prince instinctively takes a step backwards, only to find his arm trapped in an iron grip. He opens his mouth, but before he can speak, the sword-wielding man's fist slams into his face, throwing him backwards.

'Dammit! Who is this clown?!?! I was this close to finishing Raditz, only to be stopped at the last moment. That bastard's luck is unreal...' Vegeta thinks, scowling to himself as he backpedals in a hurry.

The purple-haired man follows him, instantly catching up to Vegeta despite his attempts to gain space. A quick left hook snaps the Prince's head to the side, before his opponent nails an uppercut to the chin, throwing Vegeta into the air.

The short Saiyan scowls, taking a moment to consider his options.

'Kakarot should be back any second now, and I have no chance of beating both of them at the same time... dammit! Am I really forced to flee like this...?'

Swallowing his pride, Vegeta puts two fingers to his head, disappearing a split second later...

Far, far away in the Universe, on an almost abandoned planet, Vegeta pops into existence next to a small, yellowish alien. He immediately attempts to blast the alien, but when he points his hand at it, something pulls down on his shoulder, knocking his aim off. While the alien scampers off, Vegeta whips his head around to see what dares to grab him with such force...

Holding onto his shoulder is the purple-haired stranger that he was fighting, who seemingly grabbed onto the Prince just as he disappeared. Before Vegeta can do anything, a fist slams into his ribs, breaking several with an audible crack.

Vegeta hisses in pain, cringing away from the stronger man. Unfortunately for the Prince, his opponent doesn't let up, throwing himself at Vegeta with cold fury in his eyes.

The sword-wielding man ducks a clumsy strike from Vegeta, hammering a thudding uppercut into the Prince's broken ribs as he dodges. He leans backwards to avoid Vegeta's counterattack, then throws a quick 1-2 into his opponent's nose, causing Vegeta's eyes to water uncontrollably. He tilts his head to the side, allowing a jab from Vegeta to slide off of his cheek, before he grabs the attacking arm, pulling the short man into a knee to the face.

The Prince stumbles backwards, blood flowing freely from his nose, and yet his opponent doesn't follow up on his previous offense, instead staring at Vegeta with a small, satisfied smile on his face. Vegeta, eyes bloodshot with rage, launches a furious barrage of Ki blasts, each aimed directly on target. The stranger, with the same confident expression on his face, creates a skin tight barrier of Ki, easily blocking every single attack. However, that wasn't the point of these attacks...

The smoke cloud from the Ki blasts completely conceals both Vegeta and the stranger. Immediately afterwards, the Prince launches dozens upon dozens of balls of Ki into the air, completely surrounding the cloud of smoke and, even more importantly, drowning out Vegeta's Ki signature, keeping his opponent from sensing him.

Vegeta begins to forcefully condense several of the balls of Ki into discs, before launching them into the cloud of smoke, covering every inch of the cloud that isn't Vegeta with deadly attacks. After half a minute of this, he begins to notice that, despite these attacks having enough cutting power to even damage Frieza, he doesn't see any signs of his opponent being hit. As he stares into the cloud in confusion, someone coughs behind him, causing Vegeta to quickly turn his head, startled.

Standing directly behind him, close enough that he can see him even through the thick cloud of smoke, is the purple-haired swordsman, who looks no worse for wear after Vegeta's onslaught of attacks. The Prince quickly tries to backpedal into the smoke cloud, but the stranger acts faster, forcing his Ki aura to flare up, sending out a small shockwave that immediately clears the smoke away. Vegeta, caught off guard, is unable to react as the stranger dashes forward, finally going back on the offense.

A quick elbow to the jaw jerks Vegeta's head to the side, before the stranger follows it up with a straight-right to to the throat. The short Saiyan's hands shoot up, instinctively grabbing his throat as he finds that he can't breathe anymore. The stranger takes advantage of this moment of weakness, throwing Vegeta back with a massive double palm strike to the ribs. As the injured Saiyan flies backwards, he notices something curious...

'This bastard... wait... the way he fights is... it's just like Raditz?!?!'

His eyes shoot open in shock when he realizes this, and for the first time in this battle, hope begins to blossom in his heart.

The Prince's arm shoots out, throwing a ball of Ki towards the stronger man, who easily slaps it aside. The stranger arrives directly in front of him, throwing a quick jab to Vegeta's nose, but, to his surprise, Vegeta had predicted that, ducking before the attack was even thrown. He springs upwards as soon as the attack whiffs overhead, landing a devastating uppercut that sends the purple-haired man flying. Then, before he can go too high, Vegeta grabs the man's leg, turning to slam him into the ground.

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The stranger immediately rolls to his feet, hooking his left arm around Vegeta's leg as he stands up, and then twists his body to send the Prince of all Saiyans into the dirt. Immediately after, he thrusts his arm forward, building a devastating Ki blast in it... only for Vegeta to again predict his movements, kicking the stranger's arm with his free leg at the perfect moment, throwing his aim off. Vegeta soon responds with his own blast, aimed point blank at his opponent's face.

Boom.

A loud explosion can be heard as the purple-haired man is thrown backwards, instantly being launched dozens of miles away from Vegeta. The Prince, not one to let this opportunity go to waste, dashes at the stranger's body as fast as he can, continuously peppering him with smaller Ki blasts. By the time the stranger's momentum is lost, and gravity begins to take hold of him, Vegeta has caught up, winding up a massive two-handed sledgehammer blow to send his opponent spiraling towards the ground. A large cloud of dust is kicked up when the stranger impacts the ground, instantly creating a crater that any onlookers would assume was created by a meteor strike

Back on Earth, a worried, orange-clothed man ruffles through a small, brown drawstring bag, quickly taking out a green bean. Without wasting any time, he stuff the Senzu Bean into Raditz's mouth, forcing the older Saiyan to chew it. After several long, tense seconds, Raditz's pale face slowly fills with color, and his wounds begin healing at a visible pace.

First is his right eye, which was previously completely destroyed, then the gaping hole in his chest slowly began to close up, which is quickly followed by his right arm suddenly regenerating. Before long, Raditz is back to perfect health, causing Goku to sigh in relief.

Suddenly, Raditz's eyes shoot open, and he takes a deep, ragged breath. He immediately jumps to his feet, looking around wildly, but stops as soon as he sees his brother.

"Kakarot?! What happened?! The last thing I remember was fighting against Vegeta. Is he...?" he trails off, feeling a deep sense of dread at the thought.

"He's alive, but there's no time to talk!" Goku replies, dashing out the door. "Some really strong guy showed up and stopped Vegeta! They should still be fighting."

Raditz, although confused, follows his younger brother, flying towards the location of his fight with Vegeta at lightning-speed. When they arrive, they discover an empty, quiet battlefield.

"They were right here! King Kai, where'd they go?!"

The blue Kai is silent for several seconds, causing the duo to be worried. Fortunately, the older of the duo, who is much better at Telepathy, quickly contacts the Kai.

"Uh, King Kai? Are you there?" Raditz asks telepathically.

"..."

"King Kai?"

"..."

"Helloooo?"

"Dammit Raditz! I'm busy searching for them!" the Kai shouts. "All I can say is that they aren't on Earth. Give me a few minutes and I'll be able to point Goku in the right direction. Then he'll be able to find their energy and teleport both of you there with the Instant Transmission."

"Ohhhh, that makes sense... why didn't you say so to begin with?"

Ignoring King Kai's angry shouts, Raditz turns towards his brother, quickly explaining the situation.

"Alright! I'll go back and get the rest of those Senzu Beans." Goku says. "The guy who saved you may need one. Vegeta has gotten really strong!"

"Are you sure you don't know who he is?" Raditz asks curiously.

"Nope! Never seen him! All I know is that he had purple-hair and a really cool looking sword strapped to his back!"

On a nearly abandoned planet, a purple-haired man stands up, causing Vegeta's face to fall when he sees that the man is completely unharmed.

"No wonder he died to Vegeta..." the stranger mutters, before raising his voice. "You're not bad. How about I start trying a little?"

The Prince pales when he hears these words, but he doesn't relent, instead bringing his hands together over his left shoulder.

A purple light begins to shine from his hands, and yet his opponent doesn't move, looking at the blast that Vegeta is charging with a small smile on his face. Before long, Vegeta has poured every last drop of Ki he can into the attack, causing it to grow beyond any Ki wave he's fired before...

"Galick Gun... FIRE!" he screams, pointing both hands at the unmoving man.

The purple-haired stranger looks at the oncoming wave of energy with a confident, almost bored expression on his face. Just as the attack is about to reach him, his right arm grabs the hilt of his sword, pulling it out of its sheath and slicing downwards in a fluid motion.

The purple Ki is no match for the simple sword slash, disappearing on contact with the pitch black sword. As Vegeta watches with wide eyes, a shockwave of energy erupts from the black blade, quickly reaching the Saiyan Prince despite his attempts to push it back with his Galick Gun...

Boom.

An explosion so loud that it makes the last one seem like a firecracker erupts from Vegeta's location when the attack hits him, rupturing his eardrums. He clenches his ears, unable to hear his own shouts of pain, before quickly attempting to use the Instant Transmission to escape. As Vegeta tries to teleport away, the stranger drops his pitch-black sword...

The sword causes the ground to shake once it lands, seemingly far, far heavier than it appeared to be at first glance. Then the purple-haired stranger disappears, instantly reappearing in front of Vegeta, snapping the Prince's head to the side with a lightning-fast kick. Soon after, he twists his body in midair, sending another devastating kick, this time to Vegeta's arm.

The short Saiyan goes soaring downwards, sliding along the planet's ground with enough force to create a deep, miles-long groove in the dirt. After several seconds, he unsteadily rises to his feet, clutching his left arm.

"Dammit... who the hell is he?!?!" the Prince mumbles, staring at the purple-haired man with a rare look of fear.

The stranger lands on the ground near Vegeta, but before he can do anything, Goku and Raditz pop into existence a few dozen feet away from the duo.

Goku steps forward, as if to help the stranger, but then he notices the state that Vegeta is in. His eyes widen in shock when he compares the two fighters, one of whom is half-dead and beaten down, while the other isn't even damaged in the slightest.

The stranger turns towards them, speaking in a calm, confident voice.

"Give him a Senzu Bean. I have something to say, and all three of you need to hear it."

Although Goku knows how much of an awful idea healing Vegeta is, something about the stranger's tone almost forces him to listen... along with the massive strength difference between the purple-haired man and Vegeta. He digs around the pouch of Senzus for a second, before throwing one to Vegeta.

The Prince is caught off guard by this, as his damaged ears didn't allow him to hear the conversation, but he still reacts in time to catch the bean. He ignores his confusion, quickly gobbling down the Senzu Bean.

The stranger opens his mouth to speak, but is quickly interrupted by the furious voice of Vegeta, who is emboldened now that he's been restored to peak fighting ability.

"Who the hell are you, scum?! This fight had nothing to do with you! Why would you ever risk yourself to save Raditz?!"

The purple-haired man smirks, but doesn't immediately reply, instead walking over to where his sword was dropped. After wiping the dirt off of it with his Ki, he slips it back into the sheathe on his back, before turning towards the Saiyan Prince.

"My name is Trunks." he begins. "And as for why I saved Raditz? Well... who wouldn't save their mentor when they're in danger?"