Ch. 61: The Story is Told (2)

"Brieza bebroyed blanet Vageeta! One bave bof shish shingers and the bole blanet shas sheshtroyed!" Dodoria shouted, laughing maniacally. "All Bew Bonkeys Shilled shin a blank!"

"Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta... not a meteor." Vegeta repeated, the realization setting in.

"Frieza... But why...?" Nappa muttered, lost in thought.

...

"Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta..." Raditz was just as shocked as Vegeta had been.

"Because our father was strong?" Goku wondered. It didn't make sense to him. Why kill powerful fighters for no reason?

"Yeah. That's pretty much the size of it. Frieza feared the Saiyan's boundless potential." Shay said.

"That sounds like Frieza, all right." Raditz noted. 

"The last mission that your father went on under Frieza's orders took him to a planet called Kanassa, where he was cursed." Shay started to explain.

"Cursed?" Goku asked.

"The Kanassans could see the future... They could basically predict their own deaths, though they couldn't change them. They 'cursed' your father with this ability, mere days before Frieza destroyed the planet." 

"He knew?" Raditz asked.

"He tried to warn people, but they wouldn't listen. The Saiyans just couldn't believe that Frieza would turn on them like that. So, he tried to save at least one person." Shay explained.

"Kakarot." Raditz realized.

"He sent me to Earth?" Even Goku had figured it out.

" Exactly. He stole a spaceship and sent you to Earth right under Frieza's nose. The next day, Frieza's army gathered right outside Planet Vegeta's atmosphere. Your father attempted to fight them, and he actually made it through several hundred of Frieza's soldiers, but once he got face-to-face with Frieza, it was game over. Frieza created an energy sphere about a quarter the size of the planet and tossed it at the planet casually. Every single Saiyan died." Shay finished her story.

"A quarter the size of the planet..." Goku muttered in awe.

...

"I bolb bew shebrybing bye shnow!" Dodoria pleaded with the two Saiyans, "Bet Be shno bow!" 

"Vegeta." Nappa said.

"Dodoria, do you honestly think that you can just go back to Frieza, scot-free after telling us that?" Vegeta asked with unbridled rage in his voice.

"But bew bromised!"

"And you watched Frieza destroy my home planet! For all the Saiyans who died, you die now, Dodoria!" Vegeta shouted at him. Realizing that Vegeta was serious, Dodoria backed up, stumbled, then started flying away as fast as he could, but Vegeta was far faster.

"Bajeeta!" Dodoria managed to exclaim before Vegeta punched him in the face.

"Your face needed a bit more love, Dodoria. Maybe you'll end up handsome before you die... or maybe not." Vegeta remarked, "Go ahead, Nappa." He grabbed Dodoria's arm, anchoring the spiky pink blob in place, not that it mattered. Dodoria was already half-unconscious. 

Nappa drew his hands back and began to gather energy. "This is for all of the Saiyans that you and your master murdered!" He shouted.

"This is your penance for making light of the Saiyan race, Dodoria!" Vegeta whispered in Dodoria's ear, "I'd do it myself, but Nappa has far more... unsettled emotions regarding this matter. Just this once, I'm giving up the small fish. You should be glad. He may make it quick."

"GALICK GUN!" Nappa made it quick.

...

"Stop flying. Dodoria's energy's gone, they'll be paying more attention to their surroundings now." Piccolo told me. 

The moment that we realized that Dodoria was not Vegeta's ally, Piccolo and I decided to use the opportunity to book it as far away from the three threats as possible. We figured that they'd not notice if we put out a little bit of power, so long as we kept it down a bit. As a result, we made it about halfway back to the cave where we'd left Bulma before we sensed Nappa end Dodoria.

"Nappa's gotten stronger too." I noted aloud.

"Saiyans... Stronger after every battle, just like your father." Piccolo muttered. 

"Yeah."

...

"Nappa. Frieza doesn't have any more scouters."

"He destroyed Planet Vegeta..." Nappa muttered under his breath.

"Nappa! We'll get our revenge, but first, we need to find at least one Dragon ball first. They're useless without all seven, right?" Vegeta thought aloud.

"You're right. Just one, then we can bide our time." Nappa agreed.

"I sense quite a few power levels over in that direction. It's likely a Namekian village. Let's go, Nappa." Vegeta said, flying off without even looking back. 

"Right."

...

"We're back! Bulma, Krillin, Gohan? Anyone?" I asked when I couldn't see anyone inside the cave.

"I can sense them further inside." Piccolo noted. 

"The elders say that our world used to be lush and full of forests of Ajisa plants." When we got to the Capsule house, Dende was telling Krillin and Gohan about the catastrophe that had destroyed Namek's environment. I watched a complicated expression flicker across Piccolo's face as we half-opened the door, before stopping to listen to the story. 

Dende talked about what he'd heard of the past conditions on their planet. It'd been a beautiful place, but then a violent storm had destroyed almost all life on the planet. The only one in the current age who knew what the planet looked like back then was the Eldest Namek. 

Guru had seen the condition that the planet was in, and it had brought him great sorrow. In an effort to bring their planet back to how it'd been in its peak, they were actively trying to plant more Ajisa plants, but their efforts had been slow going. Eventually, they'd hoped to restore the planet to its former glory, but then Frieza had appeared.

"Don't worry, kid. We'll save your planet, I promise." Piccolo told Dende as we showed ourselves to them. 

"Mister!"

"Piccolo!" The young Namekian and Gohan both hugged Piccolo while Krillin clapped me on the back.

"I knew that no spiky pink alien would be able to beat the likes of you two!" Krillin said cheerily.

Piccolo sat down with a sigh, "Honestly, it was pretty touch and go for a while. We ran into Vegeta and Nappa."