King Kai's world…
"Hmmm.. while I completely understand why you would want me to train you, Piccolo.. It's the training you part that I don't quite get, Kami." King Kai said, scratching his chin.
Kami for his part scratched the back of his head, sheepishly looking down and bowing towards King Kai. Piccolo looked at his other half with a knowing smirk, "Yeah what's up with that, old man?" The younger Namekian teased, crossing his arms. Kami glared at Piccolo and straightened his back with a 'hmph.'
"The disrespect is unreal.." He muttered before turning towards the short, plump Kai. "Ahem well.. The truth is.." He began, seeming uncertain of himself. After a few seconds a firm resolve shone in his eyes and he gripped his staff tightly, looking the North Kai dead in the eyes. This time when he spoke his voice was deep and full of purpose.
"The truth is, though I have been the guardian of Earth for decades, it has been a very long time since I have played an active role in defending my home. Though I don't expect that to change overmuch the least I can do is help in some way. If I become stronger and strengthen my godly Ki, then my abilities and connections will become stronger as well…"
Beside him Piccolo gasped and stepped around to face the man. "You mean to empower the eternal dragon, Shenron?" He asked incredulously.
Kami nodded. "Yes. Then at least, when I get back to Earth.. perhaps Shenron will be more useful in the coming war. If I strive to do my absolute best.. No, for this I must push even beyond that.. since our bodies can't die here they can be pushed far beyond what would have been possible when we were alive. And King Kai will guide us… I'm confident that with this training Shenron will gain the power to grant two full wishes." He said with closed eyes.
Across from them King Kai shrugged and yawned in an exaggerated manner. "Well it makes no difference to me. Are we ready to get this show on the snakeway?" He asked with a laughing snort. Piccolo and Kami shared a look before sighing.
Living world: The resistance's spaceship (formally captain Ginyu's)
"I don't care, Kakarot. I don't care about Frieza or any of this stupid shit. I don't want that man anywhere near my son." Bulma said with a tone of finality. She crossed her arms and glared at her husband, who looked to be extremely conflicted. The two of them sat on a comfortable looking blue sofa.
"I understand where you're coming from, Bulma. Believe me I do. I don't really want Ginyu around Gohan either but listen.. we need his help.." Her husband pleaded.
"Don't you even start!" Bulma began but the man continued speaking.
".. and besides. Gohan has already forgiven him and I think that in the wake of losing Piccolo he needs someone. I can't just rip them apart now." He reasoned. If anything this just seemed to infuriate Bulma further. "He is a child Kakarot! Our child! Are you fucking daft?!" She roared standing up and rounding on her husband.
"Of course he's going to forgive the man, Gohan is a fucking Saint but it is our job as his parents to protect him and that man.." She yelled pointing towards some far off portion of the ship. "..Is the son of a bitch that almost killed him in the first place!" The blue haired woman turned her attention to the other gathered Earthlings.
They looked like cornered animals caught beneath the unrelenting fury of the exasperated mother.
"Say something Krillin, Jesus he won't fucking listen for God's sake." She huffed before stomping off to be alone in some other section of their vessel. Yamcha and Chi Chi shared a look. "I should go.." The ox princess said, to which her boyfriend nodded in agreement. He kissed her on her forehead and bid her farewell before turning back to a gloomy looking Goku.
Krillin sighed. ".. Look Goku. I've always had your back and I always will. But even I'm fed up with this crusade. It feels uncomfortable as hell. Every year we gain a new mass murdering psychopath for our cause and now we've lost one of own.. It's really starting to feel like we're losing sight of fighting for what's right in lieu of winning at all costs.." He admitted with a downtrodden expression.
Kakarot frowned at the man. "Look most of those guys are saiyans, they're my family, they're just lost and misguided, that's all. Besides we're all in this together now, you can't say he was just one of our own, the saiyans felt the loss too.." He said defensively.
Yamcha stepped forward next. "And that's completely fair and you might even be right but do we really need these guys to beat this Frieza character? Can we even trust them In the first place? They may just as well kill all of us before the real fight even begins.." He said with trepidation.
"Even if we don't necessarily stop working with them altogether, we could just split off into two groups. I honestly think we'd be better off.." He walked over and put a hand on the sitting Kakarot's shoulder, a bright smile overtaking the bandit's face. "You know? Us Earthlings, with you as our leader. Like the old days. We always managed somehow…"
Kakarot stood up quickly. Due to the vast difference in their power, the slightest contact forced Yamcha to stumble backward, nearly being blasted off his feet. "Uaha!" The man cried but Tien quickly appeared behind him and helped steady his friend.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The four Earthlings, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu turned to Kakarot in collective shock. They knew he probably hadn't meant to be so forceful but he usually kept such careful and gentle control of himself around his friends..
Kakarot looked as if he were about to apologize, a look of wide eyed guilt crossing his features before it morphed into a look of aggravation. "In case you've all forgotten, each and every one of you has tried to kill me or sabotage me at some point in time in my life.. The bottom line is when it comes right down to it, I can only really trust myself." He grumbled crudely.
The Z-warriors gave him a hurt, disbelieving look.
They shared a brief glance before the four of them departed in unison. Clearly their friend was hurting and needed some space right now.. No pun intended.
Kakarot watched them leave with a mixture of regret and disdain. "Good riddance.. I need to get back to my training anyways.." He turned and disappeared in a flash step.
Elsewhere on the ship..
Raditz, Turles, Nappa and Vegeta stood around in a closed circle..
"Look, all I'm saying is.." The large saiyan Nappa began slowly scanning the gathered saiyans. ".. With those dragon ball things we could restore the planet Vegeta. A year after that we can revive all the saiyans killed by Frieza.."
Raditz shook his head and stepped forward, intersecting. "It doesn't work that way. As Kakarot already explained, the dragon has limits. We could most certainly revive the planet itself, it's merely a star. But all the souls of the countless saiyans Frieza has killed over the years?.. The way my brother explained it, the longer a soul spends in the otherworld the more energy is required to bring them back to the other side…"
He scratched his chin looking thoughtful. "I honestly couldn't imagine the kind of power it would take to revive that many saiyans from two whole decades ago.." The man sighed. After several impregnable seconds of silence Vegeta spoke with an air of authority. "It doesn't matter."
The rest of the saiyans met his gaze with uncertainty and waited until he elaborated further. "It is unfortunate we cannot revive all our fallen brethren.. But even if we can bring back the planet and a few handfuls of saiyans, the empire will rise again."
"But Vegeta.." Turles began. "If we only revive a few.. the gene pool will be limited. One way or another there won't be enough saiyans.." The saiyan prince cut him off with a wave of his hand and a glare.
"Bah!" The ruler of the saiyans already knew where the pirate was heading with this.
"For far too long saiyans have clung to meaningless traditions that have held us all back. It matters not whether or not a saiyan is pureblooded, as long as they are strong and remain loyal to their heritage.. Ultimately, even Kakarot's son has a tail and just look at the things he is capable of.." The other saiyans shared a look. None could argue with the man's reasoning. Pureblood or not, the boy was a saiyan through and through.
Vegeta continued, "Our powers have already grown far beyond anything our forefathers could possibly comprehend. Now I will lead us into a whole new Era. I will be the most powerful saiyan King in all of existence, and I will rule over a saiyan hybrid army. An army with potential the likes of which the universe has never seen…" He finished with an ambitious smirk.
"What about Kakarot…" Raditz added quizzically. "My brother's ideals are.. different from normal saiyans, when he met us, the golden picture he'd built in his mind of his people was torn asunder. If the army we raise is ruthless and as cold as our race originally was.." He trailed off.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We don't need to be entirely 'evil' Per se, but we will not appear weak. We must rule with an iron fist or we will lose control." Vgeta said certainly, intertwining his arms.
"The fact is, I'm the strongest. He will kneel. And we will show him a better saiyan way." He said with a quick glare directed at Turles before looking back at Raditz. The space pirate was looking better these days than after they left the outpost but it was clear he was still not at his best.
He appeared sickly and pale from the after effects of the fruit. His power level had actually dropped a little since leaving the planet they'd sucked dry.
Vegeta however.. The saiyan prince flexed his considerable power a bit. "I'm returning to my chambers to train. If anybody needs me… Don't." He said with a malicious frown.
He walked off leaving the other three saiyans to their own devices. Most likely the three of them would find a chamber to train in together or they would go find food. Maybe both.
Across the ship..
When Vegeta arrived at his chamber he let himself in and grinned at the sight before him. Kakarot was already hard at work, training.
'And what a great soldier he will make.' Vegeta chuckled to himself. With a deceitful grin the saiyan prince disappeared in a burst of speed. It was clear the youngest remaining saiyan was deeply distracted so naturally he was caught completely off guard as Vegeta reappeared and struck the man with a mighty left hook.
"Gah!" Kakarot spat, being driven to the floor with the force of the unexpected suckerpunch. He rubbed his cheek and looked up to see a smirking Vegeta. "Wooowwy.. That really hurt you know?" He asked rhetorically, looking dejected.
Vegeta merely laughed. "And just what are you going to do about it?" The man challenged mischievously.
From his position on the ground Kakarot looked up at the man and blinked several times before smirking. "Let me show you!" He cried out in a light hearted manner as he lunged at the short, spiky haired man.
Vegeta crossed his arms and began casually dodging his blows. 'Ha!' He mocked in his mind. 'Either the clown is really tired, or I've gotten stronger than I thought.. Let's take it up a notch!'
"Haaaah!" The prince powered up and his blue Ki aura snapped around him. He raised his arms in his signature stance before dashing at Kakarot and calling out "meteoric Rush!" He began pummeling Kakarot with a flurry of punches, his fists coated in blue energy.
Kakarot was blown off of his feet and onto his back. He looked up, panting and wincing. Vegeta looked down on him. "Pathetic Kakarot. You're unfocused. What's wrong with you today?" He scoffed. Kakarot merely chuckled and rose tiredly to his feet. "Just catching my breath.. Let's go again." He said with blood flowing down his mouth.
Vegeta had no way of knowing but.. Kakarot's gravity watch was currently set to 200, which was the cause of his unusually sluggish movement. With proper Ki control combined with his natural inclination towards science and of course, a fair understanding of his wife's work.. Kakarot had eventually been able to limit break the gravity watch he possessed.
At one point in time or another, Kakarot had meant to tell his friends of his success, especially the other saiyans. They would jump at the chance to effectively double the gravity they could train under, their siayan biology making the most of the incredible technology.
The simple fact of the matter was, as soon as Kakarot had completed his work he was on his way to test it. Unfortunately he and his wife as well as all of his friends had gotten into a fight, which he was inarguably the cause of. After that, the watch was the farthest thing from his mind, he simply wanted to feel.. something. Anything other than what he did in that moment.
So he threw himself into training. And when Vegeta came he threw himself into sparring. Eventually time lost all semblance of meaning as he pushed himself day in and day out, never wavering or losing focus from his goal. He wasn't training to beat the other saiyans. He wasn't even training to defeat the tyrant, Frieza…
'I've always fought for the sake of others. But for once in my life… I fight for myself!' He vowed internally.
For the first time in his existence Kakarot used all of his skill and willpower to train his body, mind and soul to their limit for the sake of one thing… Gaining power. And over the course of their long trip through the desolate cosmos.. That is what he did…
End of Act I…
End of chapter 39.
Power levels for the end of arc:
Recoome 60k (deceased)
Burter&Jeice 40k (deceased)
Guildo 15k (deceased)
Dodoria 22k (deceased)
Zarbon 30k (deceased)
Ginyu 125k
Piccolo: (before snakeway) 30k (after snakeway) 35k (deceased)
Kami: (before snakeway) 500 (after snakeway) 5000 (deceased)
King Kai: 5k (with maximum Kaio-ken) 100k
Krillin: 20k
Yamcha 12,000
Chi Chi 10,000
Tien: 14,000
Chiaotzu: 12,000
Bulma 50k
Gohan: 100k (max rage boost)
Kakarot: 100k (after fighting Ginyu) 120k
Raditz: 90k
Nappa: 70k (battle spirit mode) 100k (great ape) 700k - 1million
Turles : 145k (great ape) 1.45 million
Vegeta: 125k (great ape) 1.25 million