It was clear by the alarmed look on his face that Kakarot wanted nothing more than to fly to his friends' aid but.. this was not his fight. He had to have faith in them.
He respectfully waited until the last of the fearsome battles, the one between Piccolo and Amond, came to it's foregone conclusion. The moment it did he burst into action, rocketing forward superman style at the speed of sound and yelling over his shoulder.
"Gohan, Bulma!" The concerned man yelled. "Get Tien and Chiaotzu and take them to the healing chambers!" He ordered.
From his rocky vantage point high above a vast majority of the battlefield, the saiyan was able to sense that Chi Chi was currently making her way with an unconscious Yamcha towards the ship. 'She'll make sure he's ok… Thanks Chi Chi.' He decided with great internal sigh of relief.
As for Piccolo, while the Namekian had exhausted himself to the point he could barely even fly, he wasn't in critical condition. His natural healing would ensure his safety.
It was because if these factors that he had ordered his wife and son to take care of master Shen's former students.. That just left his best friend Krillin.
Kakarot landed in a crouched position with a gust of wind. The sudden displacement of inertia cracked the hard, dead rock beneath his feet. He bent down low and felt Krillin's neck for a pulse. 'Come on..' He pleaded to Kami…
*thump*....*thunp*...*thump*..
"Oh thank Shenron! He's still alive.." Now that he was beginning to calm down and allowing himself to think rationality once more, he focused on the man's Ki. It was faint, but it was there.. Clearly the short monk had pushed himself far beyond what his physical body could safely handle. He had burnt through almost all of his Ki and that was dangerous..
In severe enough cases, Ki deprivation could lead to people slipping into comas or even cardiac arrest which was fatal even to martial artists.
Kakarot could do some emergency first aid with his Ki but honestly, Chiaotzu picked the ability up quickly and had become far more proficient at it. Given the fact that the pale psychic was currently unconscious, it looked like his best friend would just have to hold out until he could get him into a healing chamber..
Back with Turles, Nappa and Vegeta..
Currently the saiyan warrior Turles was furious and bristling in the prince's face. Vegeta for his part had his arms crossed and a stern expression. Turles stomped his foot and waved an arm. "That's bullshit! My team was stronger! You saw it, my warriors were far superior according to the scouters! You must have seen it with your own eyes!?" He demanded aggressively.
Vegeta narrowed the squishy organs in question in response and scoffed, uncrossing his arms to step up to the taller man. "Oh please. I've grown beyond those pathetic devices. And i'm not blind, dont patronize me, Turles." He bragged. "And what I know is that I just watched Kakarot's team beat yours fair and square. The fact that they were so severely outclassed by your crusher corps and still won so decisively just makes this ridiculous display from you, all the more pathetic." The saiyan prince growled.
Turles went red and his power level spiked. Beside Vegeta, Nappa stepped up, but the prince raised an arm and barred the colossal man's path. Turles brought his face within an inch of Vegeta's own. "Careful princess.. If you truly can sense power levels without a scouter like you claim… Then you know that I'm the most powerful saiyan in the whole god damn universe thanks to the tree of might! If I think for one second you've gone soft..!" He warned, raising a finger at his lord.
If Vegeta was worried, it didn't reflect at all on his face. "Maybe you are.. care to find out?" He mocked with a smirk. Turles stiffened and flexed his muscles several times seemingly about to take the shorter man up on that offer. Fortunately it hadn't come to that as Turles huffed and swirled around before stomping away. "Whatever! We'll travel with those fucking weaklings! But first one gets in my way i'll blast them!.." He yelled in outrage.
He made his discontentment known the entire time as he cursed loudly and stomped the whole way over to his parked ship before taking the metallic ramp up into the cockpit. Various banging and tinkering could be heard but the noise was more or less muffled by intergalactic space materials. Vegeta shook his head and sighed. Beside him Nappa appeared apprehensive.
"Vegeta… Are you sure we can trust him? He doesn't seem like the same warrior we knew from our time in the force.." He mumbled reflectively. Vegeta for his part crossed his arms once more and snorted. "Absolutely not! Don't ask such dumb ass questions Nappa. Obviously something is off with him.. But somehow.. His power feels higher than mine right now.." The prince said in a slow ominous manner.
Beside him Nappa gasped in shock. The siayan commander never believed in a million years he would hear Vegeta admit inferiority to another saiyan. Let alone turles, a space pirate whose reputation was all but soiled by his actions and beliefs. The man had no honor and he didn't care who knew it, as long as he came out on top.
"We don't know how powerful he is, or how much strength this fruit will give us.. We'll play along for now and keep a close eye on him. Unfortunately we need him to help us defeat Frieza.. more than that… We need a blasted miracle!" Vegeta huffed before turning and heading back towards the resistance members' ship.
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It was a few days later and five of the few remaining pureblood saiyans could ve found gathered on a desolate, withered rock of a world. It was clear the planet was dead, and it was even beginning to turn gray and flake on the edges. Soon it would likely implode…
"There's one last order of business then. After that we can leave this ball of shit." The prince of all saiyans said simply. He scanned each of the other saiyans for a moment before continuing seemingly reluctantly. "We all know where our power stands.." He said shortly. ".. And we also know that even combined we are simply no match for Frieza." To this each of the individual warriors nodded in agreement.
"Thankfully, Turles, the fine and loyal soldier that he is, has something that will help get us just a little closer to our inevitable victory!" He said with a sweep of his arm as if to shower them all in dust or something. He wore a confident and cocky smirk.
Across from him Turles laughed. "Hahaha! Ahh really you are too kind thank you, prince Vegeta." He said with a bow. Though it was clear by his demeanor that he believed he was the one the universe should be praising. After finishing his exaggerated movements he produced a large silver trunk he'd pulled from his ship. It opened with a steaming hiss releasing unnaturally cold air, likely super cooled nitrogen.
Once the contents of the containers were fully revealed each of the five saiyans, Vegeta first, stepped forward and grabbed two red fruits that were roughly the size of a cantaloupe. Once they had remade the circle, Turles smiled. Clearly each of the other saiyans was reluctant for different reasons.
The space pirate held no such reserves. "Well boys! Bottoms up! Hahaha!" He laughed as he began devouring the fruit in the manner that saiyans did with most edible things. Vegeta frowned at the man, clearly annoyed. However…
"Haaaaah!!!" A few moments later Turles's muscles swelled to three times their previous bulk for several seconds. He gasped and cackled as his Ki expanded rapidly. After a few moments his body shrank back down a bit but he was still noticeably larger than before, and he was already pretty intimidating..
The eyes of everyone present bulged from their skulls, each of the saiyans being left in utter disbelief at what they witnessed even if it was with their own eyes. Turles continued laughing in ecstacy for several moments as he gained another half of the amount of power he had before he'd eaten the fruit.
He slowly regained control of himself and said, "Ahh.. As you can see gentlemen.. The effects of the fruit were not exaggerated in the least." He grinned. Nappa shuddered and looked at the prince. "So what do you think, Vegeta?" The large man asked. The man in question huffed.
"What do you mean? Anything for the sake of power. That's the way it's always been for us Nappa, no reason why things should be any different now." The short but mighty saiyan said. With that he and his right hand man dug in at the same time. Raditz shot his brother an imperceptible look of pity before he too began to eat his fruits.
When the three finished they experienced results that were pretty much an exact replica of the scenario that happened to Turles. The only real difference is they didn't seem to lose their mind quite as badly as the space pirate did. That being said, it was easy to see why the man lost himself so easily.
It was nearly impossible not to get drunk on the sudden influx of power…
At least that's what they believed. Kakarot's face was one of sorrow and defeat as he watched his fellow saiyans consume what remained of this planet and it's people. All save for the amount he held in his hand. Unlike his fellow saiyans, who only really saw things on the surface, Kakarot saw the true nature of things.
His fine attunement to Ki and lifeforce energy meant that he saw and practically felt the thousands of lives that comprised the fruits of their substance. He watched with growing discomfort as Turles, Vegeta and Nappa ate their fruits. Then his brother turned back to him with a look of regret for something he'd already made up his mind about.
Kakarot's heart sank as even Raditz ate the fruit. He watched as the life energies transferred from the strange plants into the ones who ate them. The saiyans absorbed a lot of the energy but none of them really even tried to regulate it within themselves. Maybe because they didn't know how? In any case that excess energy being lost was why their physical forms expanded so violently.
Kakarot looked away, focusing instead on the fruit in his own hands. On the surface they were red and spiky. On the inside, however, the souls of thousands of deceased spirits wailed in the form of golden apparitions. He shuddered. "I'm so, so sorry… Please forgive me.." He whispered. Tears streaked down his face as he devoured the fruit as quickly as possible so he wouldn't have to taste how good it was. He resisted the urge to vomit…
A moment later his power exploded outward. He clenched his fists and roared. He closed his eyes and focused, reaching deep within himself. Kakarot kept a steady, guiding hand on the wild energy as it tried to run rampant throughout his body. 'Your death's will.. Not be in vain. Please help me now!..' He pleaded internally as he forcefully reigned control over the energy with his willpower.
He forced it to be evenly distributed throughout his body, allowing him to hold in a lot more of the wild, foreign power as it assimilated with his own. From an outsider's perspective Kakarot still expanded like the others did, but not nearly as much, indicating that his process was somewhat different then the others'.
As the winds of change died down the warriors made their way back to the ships. For the most part Turles's ship had been stripped of any and all useful resources over the last few days. The bones of the once great vessel were left to fuse with the collapsing, dying planet as they flew away at many times faster than the speed of light.
Saiyan Power levels
Before leaving Earth.
After six months of training, before the fruit.
After six months of training, after the fruit.
Turles
???
100,000
150,000
Vegeta
25,000
50,000
100,000
Kakarot
11,000
40,000
100,000
Nappa
4-6k
20-30k
60-90k
Raditz
4k
30k
80k
End of chapter 25