Chapter 23

Bulma didn’t wake up again until the rejuvenation tank was reopened. When she opened her
eyes, she found herself staring right into the stern face of none other than Vegita.

“Gah!” She yelled, purely out of instinct, and jumped up, only to hit her head on the
ceiling of the tank. She fell with a thump back into the seat, and she looked about
wildly, trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly she remembered where she was,
and why she was there. She breathed a sigh of relief, and, rubbing the top of her head
tenderly, she glared angrily at Vegita.

“Dammit, Vegita!” She snapped, yanking her breathing mask off. “You scared the hell
outta me! There might have been an easier way to wake me up, don’t you think?”

“Quit babbling like an idiot and get out of there, will you?” He demanded. “It’s
Kakkorot’s turn now.”

“What?” Bulma said, forgetting her anger. “Goku? Where is he?” She hopped out of the
tank and looked around.
Gohan and Kuririn were holding Goku up, and Bulma could tell right away that he was, in
fact, Goku. He smiled at her weakly.

“Hey Bulma,” he said feebly. “We beat ‘im!”

“Goku!” She cried. “You’re back in your body! What happened out there?”

“Put Kakkorot in the tank!” Vegita ordered, pointing to the seat inside. “Quit wasting
time!”

Bulma glared at him, but Kuririn and Gohan did as he asked. They helped Goku walk over to
the rejuvenation tank, and Bulma stepped out of their way, still glaring at Vegita.

On his way over there, Goku noticed the syringes sitting on the doctor’s table. He
reacted in much the same way that he had in the hospital back home.

“Yaaah!” He screamed, suddenly displaying a surprising boost of strength as he struggled
to get away from Gohan and Kuririn. “You didn’t say I was going to get a shot! No way!
I’d rather go fight Freeza now!” Bulma covered her lowered face with one of her hands and
shook her head as he continued to struggle with Kuririn and Gohan, while Vegita looked on
in horrified disgust. Goku nearly succeeded in knocking Kuririn and Gohan over and getting
away, until Vegita decided that he had seen more than he’d wanted to see.

“I’m not giving you a shot, you idiot!” Vegita yelled. “Stop being such an infant! God,
it’s embarrassing!”

Goku breathed a sigh of relief, and he suddenly acted as if nothing had happened. He
allowed Kuririn and Gohan to help him into the tank, and they also helped him with the
breathing mask. When they had finished, Vegita slammed the tank shut and punched a couple
of the buttons on the control panel. The tank began to fill with the blue liquid again,
and Goku’s eyelids began to close. He was exhausted. And he was really beaten up. Bulma
asked Kuririn what had happened out there.

“Well,” he began. “Gohan and I were losing pretty bad to Ginyu. It turns out that he
wasn’t nearly as strong with Goku’s body as Goku was, but he was just strong enough to be
too much for us. But about ten minutes after you disappeared into Freeza’s ship, Bulma,
Vegita showed up and began kicking the tar out of Ginyu. At first, Ginyu didn’t really
seem to be enjoying things, but after a while, he got this funny smile on his face. He
just let Vegita punch him around for a while, all the time grinning that silly grin. It
wasn’t until Goku got back that we finally realized why. He was just about to switch
bodies with Vegita when Goku got back and got in the way. Ginyu was tricked back into his
old body, but he hadn’t given up. Goku was pretty much out for the count by now; Vegita
had beaten his body up so bad that he could barely stand up. But still, when Ginyu tried
to switch bodies with Vegita again, Goku took care of it.”

“What did he do?” Bulma asked eagerly.

“Well,” Kuririn said, grinning slyly. “Goku picked up a frog that was next to him at the
time, and just as Ginyu was making his move, he flung it up in between him and Vegita.
Ginyu accidentally switched bodies with the frog, and now he’s out there in a frog’s body,
and the frog got his! You should have seen it! The frog hopped all around in Ginyu’s
body while the real Ginyu just sat there on the ground, crying! It was hilarious!”

“You’re kidding!” Bulma cried, laughing happily. “Oh, I wish I’d been able to see that!
So how are you guys doing? Did Ginyu hurt you too badly?”

“Nah, Gohan and I are fine, aren’t we, kid?” Kuririn said, patting a grinning Gohan on
the head. “It was all out of our hands as soon as Vegita got there. I guess Vegita’s
okay too. Ginyu couldn’t even touch him, even when he was in Goku’s body!”

Bulma glanced over at Vegita. He was studying her and her friends quietly. He made her
nervous, looking at her like that. She shuddered. It would be a long time before she
would be totally at ease with a man looking at her. Funny how much she used to like it
before that little incident with Jees. Still, something inside warned her that Vegita
might turn out to be even worse than Jees was. She didn’t trust him at all. She’d just
have to be careful not to let her guard down. If nothing else, she was going to do her
best not to be left alone with him from now on. She felt a little, well… safer, if Kuririn
and Gohan were there with her.

Finally, Vegita broke the silence. “You three come with me,” he ordered, walking toward
the door. “You ought to change into some more protected clothes if you’re planning to
cross Freeza.”

Gohan and Kuririn followed him out, looking at each other in curiosity. Bulma followed
them, taking one last look at Goku before she walked out the door. It looked like he had
gone to sleep already. Bulma hoped he’d heal before Freeza came back. She hated to think
what might happen if Freeza came back before he woke up. She definitely didn’t like the
prospect of facing Freeza without him.

They followed Vegita into the adjacent room, and watched with with interest as he reached
into a bin and pulled out a small suit of armor, complete with blue body suit and white
boots. He put the breastplate into what appeared to be a kind of vice, and twisted a knob
on the side. The vice pushed on the armor and shrank it down. When he took it out of the
vice, it was just the perfect size for Gohan, who he gave it to without ceremony. He
began rummaging around in the bin again as Gohan gazed at his new battle armor in wonder.

Vegita found a similar set of armor for Kuririn, although his had thigh guards, a black
breastplate, and a knee length, black body suit. He gave it to Kuririn, who looked at it
in much the same way that Gohan had looked at his.

“Man,” he said, shaking his head and chuckling. “I never woulda guessed that I’d ever
wear the same armor as Freeza’s soldiers!”

He and Gohan immediately began to disrobe. Bulma crossed her arms and turned back to
Vegita.

“Vegita,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “You’ve been around Freeza a lot longer
than I have, no doubt, so I figure you probably know this already. So be honest with us
here. When it comes down to actually facing Freeza in battle, is this armor really going
to make a difference? I mean, this is Freeza we’re talking about here.”

Vegita paused, and shook his head. He looked up at Bulma without showing any sign of
emotion whatsoever.

“No,” he said simply. “These won’t protect you from Freeza. Not when he really starts
fighting. But they will help to lessen the damage caused by minor blows. That’s all.”
He had apparently picked through the bin, because he gave up on it and went over to a
separate cabinet on the other side of the room. He sifted through the various articles of
clothing that were neatly stacked there, until he had apparently found the one he was
looking for. “It’s a commonly accepted statistic,” he began, as he pulled out the white
breastplate armor, and then began sifting through the body suits, “that less than one tenth
of one percent of Freeza’s entire army of soldiers is female. As a result, there usually
isn’t much to accommodate one on short notice. Fortunately enough, though, you lucked out.
Since there weren’t any women on board for this mission, I suppose it was packed in by
mistake. Here. Consider it a gift from Freeza.” He handed her the armor, a small pair
of boots, and a black bodysuit with a dismissive nod.

Bulma didn’t take them from him right away. She glanced down at Kuririn and Gohan, who
were already stripped down to their boxer shorts, and were busily slipping into the body
suits. Bulma realized all at once that she would never be able to undress like that in
front of Vegita. Not in a million lifetimes. He eyed her curiously, apparently startled
that she hadn’t taken the armor yet. She took one look at him and shuddered.

“No,” she said, pushing it back at him. “I- I don’t want them. I’ll just stay in my own
clothes.” She shook her head and turned away from him. She had suddenly felt an
overwhelming urge to just get away from him, and she made a move to leave. Before she
could go anywhere, however, she felt Vegita’s hand on her shoulder. She flinched visibly,
but didn’t allow herself to shrink away from him, as her first impulse had advised. He’d
already seen her at her weakest, but she refused to let go of that stubborn pride that
forced her to place such a high level of importance on self-reliance.

“Look,” Vegita said quietly, seemingly reading her mind. “I never said anything about
changing in here. No one’s forcing you into anything here, do you understand? If I were
you, I’d just forget about anything that Jees said or did to you, and get on with my life.”

Bulma swallowed back a few tears. That last statement had struck a painful chord that was
quite easily threatening to haunt her for the rest of her life, and he expected her to
just forget about it? She would forever be distrustful of strange men from now on because
of what had happened, and she thought with a wry smile that Vegita was about as strange
and foreign to her mind as they came. She very much doubted that she could ever trust HIM
about anything, much less expect him to give her the privacy she needed to change clothes
right now. She shuddered at the thought, but that pride of hers wouldn’t allow her fear
of that to win. So she nodded, took the pile of clothes that he handed her, and carried
them into the next room to change.

“Hey Vegita,” Kuririn said as she shut the door. “What was that all about anyway? You
never did say what had happened to Bulma before you put her in the tank. What exactly did
Jees do that has her so upset? And why is she so terrified of you, anyway? You’re the
one who put her in there to heal, aren’t you?”

“You’d do well to keep your big mouth shut!” Vegita snapped testily. “Don’t ask so many
damn questions, you got that? It’s no business of yours anyway! Besides, the fact that
she regards me with a certain degree of fear isn’t necessarily such an unhealthy thing.
Don’t think I appreciate the fact that you two are getting to be so familiar with me. I
detest your very existence! The only reason I’m keeping you around is so that I can get
you to make my wish.
And if you continue to do your best to make me angry, then I just might forget why I’m
keeping you two around. Do I make myself clear?” And with a fierce scowl, he stomped
away from them to the farthest corner of the room, where he crossed his arms and leaned
his back up against the wall.

Gohan and Kuririn looked at each other in confusion. Something weird was going on, and
since it obviously involved Bulma, it warranted some further investigation. It would
definitely have to wait, though, because Vegita apparently didn’t want to say anything
about the matter, and trying to get Vegita to speak openly seemed about as likely as
getting an involved conversation going with a brick wall. So they just shook their heads
and finished dressing, each separately resolving to keep a closer eye on the surly Saiyan.

When Bulma had finished changing clothes, she walked back into the room to find them all
loafing about uncomfortably on opposite sides of the room. She figured they’d been waiting
on her, so she decided to hurry things up a bit.

“Sorry it took me so long,” she said, walking over to Kuririn and Gohan. She shot a
nervous glance at Vegita. “I’m not used to wearing this kind of clothing.” The clothes
Vegita had given her consisted of a black, tight-fitting body suit that went all the way
from her neck to her ankles, but excluded her arms entirely. The armor was very similar
to Vegita’s in that it didn’t have the shoulder and leg guards like the boys’ did. The
main difference between hers and Vegita’s was obviously the chest area, which was much
more suited to a woman’s figure, and it fit Bulma fairly well. She was wearing everything
he’d given her, except for the boots. She’d opted for her own instead, because she wanted
to keep her capsules on hand in case of an emergency, and besides, she preferred to have
at least something familiar to wear. It was just too strange to be completely clad in the
garb of her enemies.

Bulma had her capsule case in one hand and her old clothes in the other. She dropped her
clothes on the floor and took out a suitcase capsule.

“You guys get all your clothes together if you want to keep them,” she told Kuririn and
Gohan. “I’ll let you put them in my suitcase with mine.” With that, she popped open the
capsule to reveal a large, empty suitcase.

“Hey, thanks!” Gohan said, grabbing up his torn Piccolo-esque gi. “I kinda didn’t want
to get rid of this.”

Bulma could feel Vegita staring at her, so she turned around. She realized right away
when she saw him that he wasn’t staring at her, though. He was staring at her suitcase,
and with a good deal of surprise too. She suddenly realized that he’d never seen capsules
in action before. She actually cracked a smile at this.

“Human technology,” she said simply, pointing to the suitcase. “My father owns the Capsule
Corporation back on earth. We can capsulize anything nowadays, whether it’s something
small, like a suitcase, or something large, like a house, or even a spaceship. The one
Goku arrived in was one of our most recent creations, as a matter of fact,” she said,
turning back around and stuffing her gi in with the boys’ clothes. She then snapped the
suitcase shut.

“Surely you’re not planning on carrying that thing around with you!” Vegita exclaimed
with a slight hint of disgust.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Bulma said, fully enjoying his surprise. “But not as it
is now.” She punched the little recapsulation button on the side, and the suitcase shrank
back to its capsule form. She looked back at the shocked Vegita and grinned. “The
process is reversible,” she explained simply. “Pretty convenient, isn’t it?” Vegita just
grunted something unintelligible in reply. She picked up the capsule and put it into her
capsule case, which she then stuffed into the little compartment on her boot.

“By the way,” she said, as she stood back up, “has anyone decided what we should do next?
I have a pretty good idea, but mine’s pretty risky, so I want to hear what you three have
in mind first.”

“I’ve got nothing,” Kuririn said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Me either,” Gohan said, shaking his head. “Go ahead, Bulma.”

“How about you, Vegita?” Bulma asked, turning back around to face him.

“First tell me this,” he said, crossing his arms and scowling. “Were you telling the
truth when you said that if Freeza kills the Namek elder, the dragonballs will lose their
power?”

Bulma raised an eyebrow. “You heard all of that?” She asked in surprise. “Where were
you when all of that was going on?”

“Just answer the damn question!” Vegita snapped.

“All right,” Bulma said, shrugging. “Yes, it’s the truth. Saichorou said so himself, and
besides, the same rules apply to our dragonballs back on earth. Once the creator of the
dragonballs dies, then the dragonballs lose their power.”

Vegita’s scowl deepened. “Then we’re screwed,” he said angrily. “There’s no way we can
figure out how to use the balls before he kills that geezer.”

“Well, we should try, at least!” Kuririn said in frustration. “He probably hasn’t killed
him just yet. I say we go get them back from wherever you hid them, Bulma, and keep trying.
I’ll be damned if I’m ready to give up yet!”

“No Kuririn,” Bulma said, shaking her head emphatically. “I’m not retrieving the
dragonballs until I know how to use them. There’s a slim chance that Freeza might find
out from Nail about Saichorou’s mortal link to the dragonballs. He wouldn’t dare kill him
then, but he might be able to beat the dragonballs’ secrets out of Nail in the end. In
case we don’t beat Freeza to those secrets, I’m leaving the dragonballs right where they
are.”

“So what do you suggest we do, then?” Kuririn asked. “You said you had an idea.”

“I do,” she said grimly, “but it’s very risky, for me, anyway. I’m going to fly as fast
as I can to Saichorou’s, and when I get there, I’m going to teleport Freeza to the other
side of the planet. That’ll slow him down enough for me to get the information we need
from Saichorou or Nail if they’re still alive. Once I figure out how to use the dragonballs,
I’ll come get the rest of you and teleport us to where the dragonballs are. Then we’ll
have to make our wishes in a hurry, because by then, Freeza’ll be madder than any of us
have seen him yet.”

“What about the wishes?” Kuririn said, eyeing Vegita distrustfully.

Bulma knew what he meant. “The original plan still goes,” she said, nodding at Vegita.
“We’ll make him immortal first, do you understand? We can’t take any more chances here.
There’s too much at risk to worry about whether he’ll turn on us or not. But,” she said,
turning to Vegita and looking at him sternly, “don’t forget we have a deal, Vegita.
We get the last two wishes, remember? And we’ll be counting on you to hold Freeza off
this time as well. As soon as you’re immortal, we’ll need you to go take care of Freeza
right away, otherwise he may get here in time to make a wish of his own. If he succeeds
there, you’ll end up with nothing more than a stalemate. Agreed?”

“Very well,” Vegita said, nodding coolly. “I have no objections to your conditions. But
all of you keep this in mind. If you try to double-cross me, then you won’t have to worry
about Freeza. There won’t be enough left of you for him to even bother with!” With that,
he huffed off into the recovery room, slamming the door behind him.

Kuririn let out all the air that he’d been holding in since Vegita first started speaking.
“Whew!” He said. “Man, that guy has got one hell of an attitude problem!”

“Yeah,” Bulma replied dully. “I guess you’re right.” She didn’t want to tell him that
she rather preferred this side of him. It was a lot easier to be less intimidated by him
if he was fuming like a spoiled child. It was his quiet, probing stares that gave her the
creeps.

“Bulma,” Kuririn said, realizing that this was his chance. “I have a feeling that this
may be hard for you to tell me, but I need you to be honest. What happened to you before
Vegita put you in the rejuvenation tank?”

Bulma started wildly and gasped, spinning around abruptly and staring at Kuririn in surprise.
Vegita hadn’t told them! She surprisingly hadn’t even thought about the possibility of
their knowing about that whole incident with Jees; too much was going on to let her reflect
on it. But now she allowed herself to think about it, and she realized right away that
she didn’t want Kuririn and Gohan to know that she’d nearly been… Her mind tried to avoid
the awful word, but it failed, and she was forced to remember every detail of her encounter
with Jees all over again. She drew her arms about herself and shivered. They couldn’t
know. She’d never be able to face them if they knew. Her mind thundered out yet another
unbearable thought: Vegita knew.

“Bulma?” Kuririn said, jerking her away from her thoughts. “What’s happened to you? Why are you so scared of
Vegita lately? I know he used to scare you a lot in the past, but he kept Jees from killing you, right? Shouldn’t that
lessen the fear a little?”

Bulma could see right away that this was a loaded question. She glanced down at Kuririn with a look that begged him
not to continue. But he misread it entirely.

“Come on, Bulma,” he said, looking her straight in the eyes and putting a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch
and turn away from him. Kuririn’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Did Vegita do something to you?” He asked earnestly.
“I’m right, aren’t I? It was Vegita, wasn’t it?”

Bulma sighed and shook her head. “Just let it go, Kuririn,” she said quietly. “Vegita didn’t do anything to me except
put me in the rejuvenation tank to heal. Don’t worry about it. If something was going on that I thought you should
know, I’d tell you.” She got up to leave, but, reconsidering something as she opened the door to the recovery room,
she turned back around.

“Hey Kuririn,” she said, smiling at him.

“Yeah?” He said attentively.

“Thanks for worrying about me,” she said, waving at him and Gohan before slipping noiselessly through the door.

Bulma glanced at Vegita on her way through the recovery room. He was sound asleep, sitting at the foot of the
rejuvenation tank that Goku was sleeping in. Bulma wondered momentarily why Vegita was so tired, but she decided
that the fight with Ginyu must have drained him. His mouth twitched, and his brow sunk down a little. Whatever it
was he was dreaming about wasn’t making him happy. She shivered. Even in his sleep, Vegita made her
uncomfortable. She walked as quickly and quietly as she could out the door and into the hallway beyond it, leaving
Vegita to his dreams.

It didn’t take Bulma long to find the way out of Freeza’s ship. As soon as she was outside, she shot off like a bullet
for Saichorou’s. She focused her ki sense straight ahead of her and located Freeza almost immediately. Nail was
there too, and his ki had risen a great deal. Maybe he was defending Saichorou and Dende. She could just barely
sense Saichorou, but Dende’s signal was surprisingly strong. She pondered this for a couple of seconds and monitored
this strange signal carefully, until she realized that he was increasing in intensity only slightly, but evenly. That must
mean that he was moving toward her! And judging from how quickly his ki was intensifying, he was moving very fast,
much faster than she had been aware that he was capable of moving. Bulma decided to stop on her way and ask him
what news he could tell her. But after that, she was going to have to teleport him to Freeza’s compound so he could
be under Kuririn and Gohan’s protection. This was no time for Dende to be flying around and drawing attention to
himself.

It was another fifteen minutes before she was close enough to see him coming. She stopped and waited for him to
come to her. He stopped about half of the way there when he saw her, and he started backing up, a look of terror
spreading across his face. Bulma suddenly remembered what she was wearing, and realized that Dende must not
recognize her in the clothing of their enemies.

“Wait, Dende!” She called out to him. “It’s me! Bulma!” She flew up closer so he could see her face. He smiled with
relief then, but soon his eyes filled up with tears, and he dove into Bulma’s open arms, crying hysterically.

“He’s going to kill them!” Dende wailed. “He’s going to kill Nail and Saichorou!” He buried his face in her neck and
cried some more. Bulma frowned. No child his age should ever have to be put through such hell.

“There there,” Bulma said, patting his back and trying to sound comforting. “Don’t worry Dende. We’ll beat him yet.
I’m on my way over there now, so I can teleport him away from Saichorou. But I’m afraid that I can’t take you with
me, little one. It’ll be hard enough for me to pull this off as it is. I left Gohan and Kuririn back at Freeza’s compound
with Vegita. We’re planning to use the dragonballs as soon as we figure out how to call the dragon. I have them
hidden not too far from there, and once I find out from Saichorou how to use them, I’m going to teleport over there
and bring everyone to where they are. In the meantime, however, I’m going to teleport you over to where Gohan and
Kuririn are. You can’t stay out here in the open like this, or someone may spot you.” She let him go and prepared to
zap him over to Freeza’s compound.

“No, wait!” He cried. “You need to come with me then! Saichorou sent me to tell you how to call the dragon and
make the wishes! He said you wouldn’t know how otherwise!”

“Wait a minute!” Bulma cried excitedly. “Do you mean to tell me that you know how to call the dragon?!”

Dende nodded fiercely. “Yes,” he said quickly. “All Namek children learn that at an early age.”

“Dende, you’re wonderful!” She cried, hugging him for all she was worth. “Come on! In that case, I’ll teleport us both
there right away!”

He nodded, and she took off. She teleported with him until she came to the lake she’d hidden the dragonballs in.
There she stopped her teleport and set him down by the water’s edge.

“Wait here,” she said. “I hid the dragonballs down there in the lake. I’m going to go get Kuririn and Gohan now,
okay?” He nodded. “See you in a nanosecond!” She cried, stopping time and shooting off for Freeza’s compound.
When she got there, she simply ran through the various hallways to the room with the boys, not bothering to halt her
teleport as she went. She grabbed Kuririn and Gohan and then she carried them all the way out of the compound and
flew them to the lake. She set them down beside Dende, and she finally let time flow again. She bent over, panting,
and tried to catch her breath as Kuririn and Gohan fell over from lack of balance.

“Gah!” They cried together, falling into each other comically. They looked around in confusion for a couple of seconds,
before they saw Dende and Bulma.

“Bulma!” Gohan cried. “You teleported us here, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she said hastily. “Sorry for not warning you, but I couldn’t take the chance that Vegita might hear me. I ran
into Dende on the way to Saichorou’s, and guess what? He knows how to call the dragon!”

“All right, Dende!” Kuririn cried, picking him up and hugging him fiercely – and completely startling Dende in the
process. “You’re a lifesaver, kid, do you know that?”

Dende only smiled. Kuririn put him down and grinned at Bulma.

“So it’s back to plan B, right Bulma?” He asked excitedly. “I’m assuming that since you left Vegita back there that
you’re not including him in these wishes.”

“That’s right,” she said. “But we’d better hurry before he wakes up. I feel kind of funny about cheating him like this.”

“Gotcha,” Kuririn said, nodding in agreement. He looked around for a few seconds. They were standing right in front
of the lake, which was shielded on one side by a ten-foot rock face that stretched back for a few hundred feet. There
really wasn’t much else to speak of in the way of distinguishing features. “All right,” he said at last, shrugging. “I
give up. I don’t see the dragonballs anywhere, Bulma. Tell me, where are they, anyway?”

“I hid the dragonballs in the lake here,” Bulma explained. “We won’t have to go get them, though. We can still call
the dragon from up here, right, Dende? They are all together down there, after all.”

“Right,” Dende said. “Do you want me to call him now?”

“Please,” Bulma said, nodding at him. “The sooner the better.”

Dende nodded. He stretched his arms over the water and began speaking in Namek.

“Takkarato po Porunga pupirittoparo!” He cried out. Bulma gasped as she recognized the words as being identical to
the ones she’d used – with one exception. She’d referred to their dragon as Shenlon, instead of using Porunga, his
real name. She smacked her forehead as she realized that Nail had already mentioned Porunga’s name to her once
before. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually tried to call the wrong dragon!

Bubbles began to rise out of the water, and a faint glow appeared at the bottom of the lake. Kuririn looked over at
Bulma.

“Man, Bulma,” he said. “Didn’t you say the same thing?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head in disgust. “I forgot that their dragon’s name is Porunga. I called him Shenlon. I
even got the phraseology right. It was just that damn name that I messed up. I feel so stupid!”

“Wait a minute!” Dende said, as the ground trembled slightly and the water began to boil ferociously. “Bulma can
speak our language?”

“Yes, I can,” she replied. “Didn’t Nail tell you?”

“No,” Dende said. “You have no idea how close you were! It wouldn’t have mattered which summoning phrase you’d
used, just as long as you said Porunga’s name and asked him in our tongue to come forth!”

Bulma smacked her forehead again. Well, this was about typical! She looked at Kuririn and shrugged. He shot her an
“it’s okay” look, and then they both watched Porunga emerge from the water.

Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn stared in awe as the biggest, widest, most un-Shenlonlike dragon shot up and out of the
water. He was enormous! And unlike Shenlon, who looked more like a long snake, Porunga was a thick lizardlike giant
of a dragon who did a little more than strike a little fear in Bulma. She backed up nervously, ready to bolt in case he
was more temperamental than Shenlon was.

“Greetings mortals,” he rumbled loudly. “I will grant thee the first three wishes uttered by those present, and no
more. What is thy first request?”

Dende looked at Bulma expectantly. “Go ahead,” he said. “Tell him what you want to wish for. Be sure to say it in
Namekian, though. He only grants wishes said using our language.”

“All right,” she said nervously, looking up at Porunga. She cleared her throat and spoke in a loud, clear voice. “I wish
for the earth warriors named Piccolo, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and Chouzu to be resurrected from the dead. Please,” she
added, trying her best to sound polite.

Porunga’s red eyes narrowed a little. “I cannot,” he said after a short pause. “I am only permitted to bring one
person back to life per wish.”

Bulma gasped. “What?!” She cried. She stared at Gohan and Kuririn in horror. “What are we going to do?” She cried
in dismay. “There are only three wishes! And we were gonna wish the Nameks back to life too! We can’t even wish
all our friends on earth back, let alone all of the Nameks!”

Gohan suddenly gasped. “Hey!” He cried. “It’s Piccolo! I can hear his voice in my head! Hi, Piccolo-san!”

“Oh great,” Bulma thought nervously. “What a time for Gohan to lose it!”

“Wow!” Gohan cried. “What a great idea! Yeah, I’ll tell them!” Gohan turned to Kuririn and Bulma. “Piccolo is at
Kaio-sama’s,” he said excitedly. “He just told me that we need to wish him back first. That way the dragonballs will
appear back on earth, and we can use them to wish all the Nameks back!”

“Tell Piccolo to say hi to Kami when he gets back to earth,” Bulma cried, snapping the fingers on her right hand,
“because they’re both about to rejoin the living!”

She told Porunga to bring Piccolo back to life, and once again, the dragon’s eyes narrowed. “A simple matter,” he said,
and he glowed with a red aura for a couple of seconds. “It is done,” he said finally.

“We did it,” Gohan said with tears in his eyes. “The dragon granted our wish, Piccolo-san!”

“Does he have any more suggestions?” Bulma asked. “We still have two wishes left.”

“Piccolo-san, are you sure?” Gohan gasped. He paused. “Well, okay, I’ll tell her.” Gohan looked back up at Bulma.
“He says he wants you to wish him to Namek,” he said. “He wants to defend his home planet from Freeza.”

“What?” Bulma gasped. She thought for a second, her face hardening. “Does he realize that if he dies here, we’ll
lose the chance to use the earth’s dragonballs?” She asked Gohan grimly.

“He says he knows,” Gohan replied, nodding. “Kaio’s pretty mad at him, but Piccolo says that this is what he wants to
do.”

“All right,” Bulma sighed. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”

Shaking her head, she gave Porunga the order. His eyes narrowed again. “A simple matter,” he said, and he glowed
red as he had before. “It is done,” he said again. They looked around for Piccolo, but he was nowhere to be found.
They couldn’t even sense him.

“Where is he?” Bulma asked aloud. “I thought you said you brought him here!”

“I brought him to Namek,” Porunga rumbled impatiently. “But you never said you wanted him right here!”

“Oh great!” Bulma groaned. “I should have been more specific! So what should we do now, guys? We still have one
wish le-…” She stopped short as she felt something that she should have sensed long ago. That ki was nearly upon
them!

“What’s the matter?” Kuririn asked, suddenly anxious. Bulma was trembling so much she could hardly stand, but she
managed to turn around until she was looking at something behind them.

“Ve- Ve- Veg- g-…” She stuttered, pointing shakily to the quickly approaching Saiyan. She could feel his rage as he
raced toward them, and it kept her rooted in place, too petrified to move. He was going to kill them all!

“Oh my God!” Kuririn gasped, as he spun around and looked. “We’re in for it now! Vegita’s going to kill us for this!”

“Snap out of it!” Bulma’s mind screamed at her. “Run for it! Grab everyone and teleport away! He can’t get his wish
granted anyway, because he doesn’t know the language! Get the hell outta here!”

But her body refused to comply. She suddenly felt very lightheaded and woozy, and she was afraid she was going to
faint. As she fought desperately to clear her head and regain control of her senses, an idea flashed in her mind, and
she suddenly knew exactly what had to be done. She steeled her nerves and rigidly stood her ground as the others
backed away.

“Stay where you are!” She barked at them. “And let me handle this. We’ll have to give Vegita what he wants anyway
if we want to win against Freeza. Goku’s in no condition to fight him, and only the gods know where Piccolo is right
now. Just be quiet and let me do the talking.”

Vegita raced up as she finished, and Bulma did her best to keep from shaking. “Damn you three!” He screamed.
“Didn’t I tell you what I’d do to you if you tried anything with me?! I’ve a good mind to blast you all into oblivion right
now!”

“Try it,” Bulma said coldly, “and just see how well this Namek dragon will grant your wish. You can’t speak Namek,
Vegita, and he’ll only answer to wishes made in his own tongue.”

In an enraged frenzy Vegita rushed forward, grabbed her roughly around the neck, and lifted her bodily off the ground.
“Do you really think you can get away with defying me?” He yelled. “We had a deal, woman!”

Bulma didn’t struggle against him, or even show any signs of the terror she was experiencing right now. It was
absolutely imperative that she not provoke the angry man. She knew that.

“We still do,” she said, as calmly as was possible, “but I modified it a bit. I didn’t trust you not to destroy the
dragonballs once your wish was granted, so I made our wishes first. There’s one wish left, Vegita, and it’s yours. So
if you’ll take your filthy hands off of me and stop throwing tantrums, I just might tell the dragon your wish!” She tried
her best to sound angry and authoritative, and she actually did a pretty good job of it. Truth be told, however, she
was far too terrified to be truly angry yet. It was her own will to survive that was making this act possible.
Fortunately for her, it must have been convincing enough for Vegita, because he released her and withdrew his hand.

“Make the wish!” He hissed. Bulma knew he really would kill her if he knew what she was about to do. At least she
could be sure that he wouldn’t understand what she was going to tell Porunga.

“Fine,” she said soberly. “Porunga!” She cried, switching back into Namekian. “I wish for you to make Vegita
immortal for three-…” She stopped as Porunga suddenly began to flicker like a fluorescent light bulb. “What’s
happening?” She cried out in surprise.

Porunga roared a strange roar before suddenly disappearing, leaving the seven dragonballs in a tight ring up high in
the air. They suddenly flew off in radial directions, but landed only a few hundred yards away from each other, having
turned back into stone already.

“Oh no,” Dende sobbed, sinking weakly to the ground. “He- he’s gone. Saichorou is gone!”

Vegita growled like an enraged beast and jerked the already petrified Bulma up by her arms – just as Jees had done.
This caused something strange to happen. Something snapped in Bulma’s mind, and she suddenly found herself
reliving her experience with Jees all over again. She began to tremble violently. She was no longer aware of where
she was, or that Vegita was the one holding her up. All that she could see was Jees, along with his smoldering gaze
and sadistic grin.

“Noooooo!” She screamed, struggling wildly. “Let me go! Put me down! Please God, not again!”

Vegita was so surprised that he actually dropped her and she fell to the ground. He suddenly realized what was
happening to her and that he had caused it to happen. But by now he was too furious to care. He picked her up again
by one of her arms and slapped her across the side of her face, causing her to return to her senses. “Shut up and
snap out of it!” He roared ferociously. “Or I’ll give you something to scream about! Now tell me! Am I immortal or
not?!” She stared up at him, numb with terror, and unable to speak. Her arm began to throb from the force of his
grip. “Answer me!” He yelled, his ki flaring up.

“I- I never got to finish the wish,” she stuttered, hardly able to breathe. “No. You aren’t.”

Vegita was so angry he couldn’t even speak. Bulma had only seen him this angry once, and at that time the anger
had resulted in Jees’ death. This time, it was directed at her and her friends, and Bulma had a terrible feeling that
she knew what was coming. Vegita flung her back at Kuririn and Gohan, who caught her and helped her keep her
balance.

“You’ve just sealed your doom,” Vegita growled, lowering his face, but retaining his gaze on Bulma and her friends.
Bulma could feel his ki intensifying. He was beginning to lose control of his temper. But suddenly he looked up at the
ledge behind them, and his expression changed into one of pure fear. Bulma looked up, and she saw what had chilled
Vegita’s anger so rapidly. Freeza was standing up there, and he was glaring at them with a look so terrible that
Bulma concluded right away that they were all going to meet their end very soon.

“What have we here?” He asked very calmly and quietly. “Why wasn’t I invited to your party?”



On To Chapter 24 ~~~>