Chapter 22
After a good half-hour's worth of flying, they found themselves just outside of Freeza's compound. Not a single henchman was to be found, which really surprised Bulma, considering the fact that the radar was showing that the dragonballs were all within the immediate vicinity.
"Where is everyone?" She wondered aloud. "I know Freeza had tons of soldiers in there when I was here earlier, but I can't sense a single one now."
"Do you think they could be with Freeza, wherever he went?" Gohan asked hopefully.
"No," Kuririn said, shaking his head. "Freeza would have left someone behind to watch over the dragonballs; I'm sure of that. Something must've happened."
"Well, let's just get the dragonballs and summon the dragon while we can," Bulma said, looking around nervously. "I've got a funny feeling that we're being watched, but I'm even more afraid that Freeza could come back at any minute."
Bulma used the dragon radar to direct them around to the back of the ship. According to the radar, they were right where the dragonballs should be, but they were nowhere in sight.
"So where are they?" Kuririn asked impatiently. "Are you reading the radar right, Bulma?"
Bulma was ignoring him. She had noticed that the ground underneath them felt softer than usual. "Hmm&ldots;" She said, scratching at it with the toe of her boot. "This ground is pretty soft. Someone's been doing some digging here."
"Hey! You're right!" Kuririn exclaimed. "Come on! Let's start digging!"
They shoveled the freshly packed dirt away with their hands, and sure enough, it was only a matter of minutes before they had unearthed all seven of the dragonballs.
"Well, that was easy," Bulma remarked, dusting her hands off and putting her dragon radar away. "Somebody was definitely in a hurry to hide these things. Let's hope they're not in a hurry to come back!"
"Well, let's get these wishes made before they get the chance," Kuririn said. "Would you like to do the honors, Bulma?" He asked her.
"I'd be delighted," she said, smiling courteously at him. They stepped back away, and Bulma began the incantation.
"Oh, great Shenlon!" She cried. "Come forth and grant our wish!"
They waited tensely for a few seconds for the dragon to appear. Nothing happened!
"What's wrong?" Bulma exclaimed in dismay. "I said the incantation right, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Kuririn muttered, scratching his head. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute!" He cried. "Our dragon was made on earth, wasn't he?" He said eagerly.
"That's right," Bulma agreed. "Kami created him and the second set of dragonballs after Piccolo Daimaou destroyed the first ones. But even those were created on earth."
"And we call Shenlon using our language, don't we?" Kuririn persisted. "Well, these were created here. Maybe these dragonballs won't respond to OUR language."
"Oh!" Bulma cried. "Of course! That would stand to reason, wouldn't it? Well, okay then. I'll try saying it in the Namek language. Maybe that'll work."
She thought for a moment, thinking carefully about the conjugation of the verb. Finally, she was satisfied that she knew what she wanted to say, and in a clear, calm voice, she said the words as she had translated them. They waited hopefully for any kind of change in the dragonballs' appearance. Nothing.
"I just don't get it," Bulma said in frustration. "What am I doing wrong?"
"There must be a specific phrase then," Kuririn said. "I guess all we can do is go ask Saichorou what it is."
Bulma nodded. "I guess so," she said. "But maybe only one of us should go. We can't leave the dragonballs unguarded. Come to think of it, we probably ought to move them."
They were in the middle of trying to figure out what to do when Bulma suddenly sensed the twinge of approaching ki. "Kuririn!" She shrieked. "I can sense someone coming! No, wait, I take it back. There are two of them! One of them is Jees, and I can't quite figure out who the other one is&ldots;"
"What?!" Kuririn gasped. "Oh crap, you're right! What are we gonna do? We can't let Jees see the dragonballs!"
Bulma sighed. "Look, he probably already knows where they are. Besides, they're too close now for us to hide these things in time. All we can do is one of two things: flee or fight. We can either run like the Dickens and hope they don't catch us, or we can stay here and defend the dragonballs. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide for yourselves, but I'm staying. I'm tired of running like a frightened rabbit every time some new foe who's stronger than I am comes along! We may not get another chance at these dragonballs, Kuririn; you know that. Who knows when Freeza might come back? Besides, it's not like we'd have very long to live if we fled anyway. We can't outrun Freeza forever. Eventually, he'd just blow up the planet. If Vegita can do it, then it's a given that Freeza can."
"You're right," Kuririn agreed. "I guess I'm in. We might as well fight. I just wish I knew what happened to Goku. He wouldn't let Jees just come after us like this if something didn't happen to him."
Bulma would have said something in reply, but they had just received visitors. Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma stared in shock as Jees and none other but Goku landed in front of them!
"Goku!" Kuririn exclaimed, suddenly elated. "What on earth?! What happened? Why are you here with this guy?"
"I know!" Gohan said eagerly, staring at Goku with a gleeful expression. "You got him to switch sides, didn't you, Daddy?"
Goku grinned slyly at Jees, who grinned back. It was then that Bulma noticed that Goku was wearing a scouter. She'd felt kind of funny about him already, because his ki didn't feel right. It didn't seem like his at all, actually. And she could recognize Goku's ki anywhere, no matter how strong he became. But that scouter was what made her the uneasiest. Something definitely wasn't right.
"Are you&ldots; okay, Goku?" She said, walking up to him and looking him over from head to foot. "You don't feel right to me. Your ki is completely different. And since when do you use a scouter?" She put her hands on her hips. "Something's not right. What happened to you in that battle back there?"
Goku winked at Jees and smiled absurdly at Bulma. "I don't know what you mean," he said in a strangely hoarse yet familiar voice. "My throat's a little scratchy, but I'm the same old Goku!"
Bulma started. His voice sounded awful! "What's going on?" She said, suddenly apprehensive. She looked nervously first at Goku, and then at Jees. "And why is HE here? You can't tell ME he switched sides, Goku. That is, if you really are Goku&ldots;" Her voice trailed off, and she suddenly covered her mouth with her hand. "That voice!" She shrieked, hopping backward, away from him. "Now I know where I've heard it before! That's Ginyu's voice!" She assumed a more defensive stance, but continued. "Tell me," she ordered, "what the hell is going on here! I should have known something was wrong when I didn't recognize Goku's ki in you! You aren't him at all! What have you done to Goku, you impostor?"
Kuririn rushed forward and put himself between Bulma and Goku. "Bulma, what are you saying?!" He exclaimed. "That's got to be Goku! The only other people we left back there were Ginyu and Vegita! And I hardly think we could mistake either one for Goku! Now calm down, Bulma," he said in a more gentle tone. "You don't need to get yourself so worked up!"
Bulma glared at him stonily. "Kuririn, Oolong and Puar have the ability to change their shapes at will. Do you honestly believe that they are the only ones in the universe to have learned such a technique? Who's to say that our dear friend Goku, or should I say, Captain Ginyu, couldn't have learned such a skill?" She pointed an accusing finger at Goku. "Admit it!" She demanded. "You're not Goku! You're Ginyu!"
Kuririn and Gohan looked at Goku pleadingly, as if for some logical explanation that would calm Bulma down. Goku didn't acknowledge them. He just stared at Bulma in astonishment. Jees did the same. Suddenly Goku smirked. He then chuckled sinisterly and shook his head in disbelief.
"I must admit," Goku began, his eyes flashing with an unnatural gleam of depravity, "I never thought you'd notice the difference so quickly. You're a lot sharper than that idiot you left to fight me!"
Kuririn laughed nervously. "Uh, Goku?" He said, backing away a bit. "You can stop joking around now, you know. I think you're scaring Gohan." No one paid him any attention.
"What have you done with him?" Bulma growled. "Where is Goku?"
Goku (who we shall hitherto refer to as Ginyu) stifled a laugh. "Well, it all depends on what you count as 'being' Goku," he said, grinning broadly. "If you mean the physical part of him, or his body, then you're looking at him. As for the rest of him&ldots; well, let's just say that I hope you weren't too attached to is brilliant personality!"
"What?" Gohan and Kuririn gasped.
"You're INSIDE Goku's body?!" Bulma stuttered. "But what about&ldots;"
"My old body?" He finished for her, relishing her astonishment. "You might say it's now the legal property of the original owner of this one. Poor sap. He really did get the bad end of the bargain. I gave him my old body in return for his; but mine was slightly damaged when we made the exchange."
Kuririn and Gohan were by now much too stunned to utter a single syllable. Bulma was shaking with rage. To have victory snatched away from them when it was so close! It was unbearable!
"Now then," Ginyu said, allowing only the faintest trace of a smile to remain on his face. "The introductions are over. It's time to get down to business. Since you were able to find our dragonballs so quickly, I'm going to assume you know enough about them to know how to use them. So tell me. How do they work?"
"Sorry pal," Bulma said, grinning angrily. "They don't accept wishes from assholes."
Ginyu stared at her in shock for a couple of seconds before bursting out into a loud fit of laughter. "Is that a fact?" He asked, chuckling. "Well I suppose that rules me out then, doesn't it? Good thing I'm not the one who's making the wish. Oh well. It really doesn't matter if you tell me how to use them or not. Freeza-sama is going to beat it out of those three Nameks anyway."
Bulma realized with horror that he was talking about Nail, Dende, and Saichorou, and she gasped. But suddenly, she broke out into an unnatural laugh.
"What is it?" Ginyu said with sudden interest.
"Freeza is such a fool," Bulma said, shaking her head and chuckling slightly. "He doesn't have any idea that the moment he kills the eldest Namek, he will have permanently destroyed his dreams of immortality! Once Saichorou dies, the dragonballs die with him!" She laughed again; not because Saichorou was going to die, but instead because it would be Freeza's own ruthlessness and cruelty that would doom his plan to failure.
Ginyu laughed again. "You know, I was wrong to say you were smarter than your precious Goku. Anyone can see that that was just a ploy to try to spare the Nameks' lives! How transparent can you get?!" He laughed again.
Bulma frowned and decided to put her emotions aside for the time being. "Believe me or don't," she said coldly. "Either way, it no longer has anything to do with us. It is now between Freeza and the Nameks to determine the fate of the dragonballs; neither you nor I knows the proper phrase to unlock their power."
"I see," Ginyu said, his expression hardening. "That's all I wanted to hear." He took off his scouter and handed it to Jees. "You can have this back now," he told him. "It doesn't do any good against these people anyway." Cracking his knuckles, he stepped forward. "Well then," he said to Bulma. "I suppose all that remains for us is a fight to determine who will gain custody of the dragonballs until Freeza returns. Don't you agree?"
"I've a better idea," Bulma said, a plan beginning to take shape in her mind. She levitated the dragonballs in a horizontal ring above her head. "Take one last look at them," she said simply. Then she teleported them away, just above the surface of the nearest lake. She knew they'd be well hidden once they sunk all the way to the bottom, and this little tactic just might buy them the time they needed; just in case Freeza did learn how to use the dragonballs, that is.
Ginyu's eyes narrowed slightly. "You shouldn't have done that," he said with a malevolence that she'd never heard from him until then. "Now I'll have to make your death more painful and humiliating that I'd first intended. Jees," he said, without releasing her from his icy stare. "I know you'll get a kick out of this. Do what it takes to get her to tell you where she's spirited the dragonballs off to."
"With pleasure," Jees said, licking his lips and giving Bulma a look that made her want to retch. She clenched her fists and glared at him defiantly.
"Gohan! Kuririn!" She barked. "Leave Jees to me. No matter what happens, I want you two to focus on Ginyu. Never mind if he IS in Goku's body! Pound him flat! And forget about the dragonballs. They're gone for good. Only I know where to find them now, and I'll be damned if I'm telling these bastards anything! Besides, they aren't going to do us much good if we don't know how to use them. The only thing we can do now is to keep Freeza from winning!"
With that, she teleported to just above Freeza's compound, and she shot a small blast of challenge at Jees. He grinned and dodged it with ease. He then took off for Bulma, which is exactly what she'd counted on his doing. If she pulled this off, Yamucha was going to be really proud of her.
"So Ki Dan!" She cried, forming the deadliest one she could muster. She sent it whizzing at Jees, and he stopped in mid-air. He was going to block it. Well that's what he thought! She sent it off to the left just before it reached him. But she straightaway sent it zooming back, and she soon had it zigzagging all around him, all the time never touching him, but keeping him fairly confused and preoccupied. In the meantime, she circled around to the other side of him, and with a fierce shout, she launched herself full-force at him, drawing her leg back for a fierce kick. He spun around to meet her attack, and she let her Sokidan dawdle a bit behind him as she sailed forward. He forgot about it when he saw her coming. He poised himself to block her, and she pulled the Sokidan towards his back with all her strength. She couldn't have executed it more perfectly. The blast slammed into his back with enormous speed and strength, and overwhelmed the unsuspecting Jees completely. He fell forward from the force of the explosion, and momentarily forgot about Bulma, who was still coming at him, and who was just in time to finish her attack off with a severe kick to his ribcage, completely reversing his direction of movement, thus making the attack twice as effective. Jees shot backwards and bounced off the top of Freeza's ship, just missing the edge on his way back down. He landed roughly on the ground, but Bulma could sense he was regaining his composure just the same. She remembered seeing a gaping hole in one of the main windows on the side of the ship. Like a flash a great idea occurred to her, and she made a mad dash for that hole. She checked once to see if Jees was following her. Not yet, but judging from the loud, angry curse she heard from the ground back there, he was on his way.
She hesitated before she jumped into the ship through the hole, glancing down at Gohan, Kuririn, and Ginyu. They had already begun their battle, and Gohan and Kuririn were holding their own marvelously. Gohan especially. He'd gotten a lot stronger since he'd eaten that Sensu bean.
She dove into the hole in the glass, and she found herself inside a large room on the opposite side of the ship from where she was when Zarbon had brought her here. She ran out the door on the opposite side of the room, which led her out into the main hallway of the top floor of the ship. She ran into the central area of the top floor, and then she noticed a small stairway down. She shot down the stairs as far as they would go, and when she came out into the new hallway, she was on the bottom floor. Perfect. She ran into one of the nearest rooms and quietly closed the door. She found herself in what appeared to be some kind of training room, since there were various types of weights and exercise machines everywhere. She decided that this place would do quite nicely.
She hid behind one of the exercise machines and waited, patiently watching the door. She knew he'd follow her in, but he wouldn't blow the ship up. Freeza would kill him for wasting a perfectly good ship on the likes of her. If she'd planned this right, it would take him at least a couple of minutes to find her. That ought to give her enough time to think of some plan of action. Really, this had only been a diversionary tactic. She needed to buy some time. She was smart enough to know that she couldn't beat Jees on her own, but she figured that the boys could handle Captain Ginyu, as long as Jees wasn't there to help him. If she could hold him off long enough for them to take care of Ginyu, then she'd stand a good chance of survival. But she knew that it was going to take all of her remaining energy just to keep ahead of him. She tried to figure out what to do next.
When Bulma had entered the room, she had neglected to notice that there was another entrance on the other side of the room; one that led to a separate hallway that was just as accessible from the upstairs as hers had been. Also, she had forgotten that Jees had Ginyu's scouter, so she wasn't suppressing her ki. These two oversights, unbeknownst to her, had shattered her plan. As Jees tracked her down with the scouter, he used the quickest passages to get where he was going, which, unfortunately for Bulma, led him straight to that door she had overlooked. Although it was sheer coincidence that she had come to the first door, rather than this one, it might just as easily have been attributed to bad luck, because as soon as Jees slid stealthily in, he perceived almost immediately what was going on. He could plainly see Bulma from where he was, and he could also see that she was totally oblivious to him. Stifling a laugh, he silently crept up behind her.
Bulma was still trying to come up with a good plan when the little hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end. She was suddenly aware that someone was watching her from behind. She spun around almost frantically, and she punched at the presence she felt behind her. She found herself face to face with Jees.
He caught her fist in his gloved hand and he held it there. He squeezed it progressively harder until she winced, and then he let her go. She hopped backward and over the machine she'd been using for cover and watched him as he walked casually around the machine until he was in front of her.
"You can't win, you know," he said, leaning up against the machine with a smug grin on his face. "You're far too outclassed by me to stand any chance of escape."
Bulma tensed and backed up a few more steps. "If you think that I'm going to tell you anything because of that, then you're sadly mistaken!" She spat at him.
"Well I should hope not!" Jees laughed at her. "That would take all the fun out of it!"
Bulma decided that it was time to leave. She bolted out the door she'd used to enter the room, and she made a beeline for the stairway. She cursed herself for overestimating herself like she had. Right now she was too weak to teleport any real distance; all she could do was run. She knew Jees was following her, but she couldn't hear him coming. Suddenly she found out why. He suddenly materialized in front of her, right inside the doorway to the stairs. She crashed into him, and would have fallen backward from the impact - which quite easily could have been likened to crashing into a reinforced concrete wall - had Jees not grabbed her by the upper arms and held her up. He shoved her arms up against her sides and held them there, thus immobilizing her upper body. She shrieked in terror and kicked viciously at him, but he didn't seem to be feeling any of her blows. She must have been a lot weaker than she thought. Bulma really began to panic. She was much too weak right now to fight for much longer. She just hoped the boys were having better luck than she was.
"You might as well accept it," he said, his eyes burning holes into hers. "I've won. And now, you belong to me." His voice had become thick and husky, and his words froze the blood in Bulma's veins.
She began trembling as she slipped into a state of semi-shock. Her head drooped, and she moaned, her voice full of despair. She looked up at him imploringly; almost unable to believe this was really happening. Jees grinned again. He was really going to enjoy this.
Bulma saw some slight movement in the background, but she was too caught up in what was happening to her to really notice. Blind panic took over, and she began to struggle again, shrieking wildly. "Please," she cried, becoming hysterical. "I'd rather die! Let me go!"
Jees laughed, and he flung her roughly onto the floor. "Oh no," he said, licking his lips and tracing the contours of her body with his eyes. "No, I won't let you die yet. Not until I've finished with you!"
It was then that Bulma saw what was lurking in the shadows behind Jees. She recognized at once the unmistakable form of Vegita, and as he stepped into the light, only a foot or so behind Jees, she could see his face. Bulma was petrified at the sight of him. He was more than angry; he was insane with rage, and the sheer power of his ki was overwhelming, to say the least. She stared at him in abject terror, and she didn't dare move a muscle. His nostrils flared, and his teeth were grinding forcefully. But the features that would be forever imprinted in Bulma's memory were his eyes. They were glowing with the power of pure hatred, and they glared with unimaginable intensity at Jees.
Jees observed that she was staring at something behind him, and he suddenly became aware that someone was there. He spun around to see who it was, but he didn't react fast enough to avoid what came next.
"You fucking pig!" Vegita screamed, punching Jees' face so hard that he shot straight across the hall and crashed into the opposite wall. He didn't get up right away. Vegita didn't stop there. "I'm blasting you straight to hell, you stinking bastard!" He screamed, his ki flaring up tremendously.
He leapt over Bulma and sailed into Jees, who had barely pulled himself out of the wall by now. Bulma watched Vegita as he flew over her, and took notice of the look of murder in his eyes. If her senses weren't deceiving her, Jees wasn't going to be alive for that much longer.
Vegita grabbed Jees by his neck with one hand, and he slammed him up against the wall. Jees made an unintelligible gurgling sound, and he tried to wrench free of Vegita's hold on him, but Vegita obviously had him at a disadvantage in strength right now. Jees wasn't going anywhere.
"I really detest the fact that I won't be able to make your death as long and painful as you deserve," Vegita snarled, drawing his free hand back and powering up rapidly, "but I haven't the time. Be grateful for that, and be prepared to meet your idiotic captain again soon; he'll be joining you shortly!" With that, he released Jees' neck, and in one swift movement, he shot a ki blast that completely engulfed Jees and disintegrated him as it tore completely through to the outside of Freeza's ship. Vegita's eyes were gleaming with a sadistic satisfaction as his blast exploded far off in the distance. Jees was undeniably dead.
Bulma pushed herself upright, using the wall next to her for support. She was breathing rather heavily, and she tried to control the dizziness that suddenly plagued her. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and she was afraid that she might keel over at any moment. She stared blankly at Vegita, almost too exhausted to care why he was there, or what he planned to do with her now. Still, when he turned around and his gaze fell on her, the instinctive fear and distrust took over, and she cringed, clumsily backing away from him a few paces more. She was clearly in no condition to fight him, but her will to fight back hadn't quite died out yet.
Vegita walked over to her slowly, giving himself time to look her over from a distance. She'd be doing no fighting in this condition; that much was certain. Her ki was dangerously low, and she was so shaky and weak that she seemed barely able to keep herself upright. "She's liable to pass out on me at any moment," he thought grimly.
"You're coming with me," he said. It was more of an order than a request. He reached for her with one hand, but she recoiled from it as if it were some kind of venomous snake.
"No!" She cried weakly, shaking her head too fast and making herself dizzier. "Stay away from me! I'm not going anywhere with you."
Vegita didn't reply, but in one quick movement, he scooped her up into his arms. She cried out in panic, and she fought against him sluggishly, which only succeeded in making her more exhausted. Vegita began walking briskly with her, deeper into the ship, and she was helpless to do anything but go along for the ride.
"Please," she pleaded. "I have to help Gohan and Kuririn. I have to help&ldots;" Her voice trailed off as she came on the verge of tears. She knew it was useless to argue with him. He was going to do whatever he wanted, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.
Vegita made a sound that sounded like a combination between a sigh and a groan, and he shook his head at her. "You aren't going to be any help to anybody as you are right now," he said. "What makes you think you can fight Ginyu if you can barely stand upright?" She didn't know how to answer that.
"So what are you going to do with me, then?" She asked dully. "Why not just leave me where I was?"
"I'm taking you to the recovery room," he replied, his voice exuding more than a slight hint of annoyance. "I'm going to put you in one of the rejuvenation tanks to heal. You're the only one who knows where you sent those damn dragonballs, and if I let you stumble out there to be killed by that idiot Ginyu, my chance at immortality is shot all to hell. There. Is that a good enough reason for you?" The testy tone of his voice told Bulma that he didn't like explaining his actions. Why he had done so for her, she didn't know. She still felt like crying, but at least she wasn't as confused.
After what seemed like an eternity, Vegita stopped and set her down. As Bulma wavered unsteadily on her feet, she looked around. She realized that this was the same room that she'd awakened in the first time she was in Freeza's ship, and she noticed that the tank that Vegita had been in was nearly beyond recognition. He must have blasted out of it when he escaped.
Vegita opened the other rejuvenation tank and turned back toward her. "Get in," he ordered, pointing to the seat inside.
Bulma looked at him distrustfully. "I'm not getting in that thing until I know Gohan and Kuririn are safe," she said, trying to sound authoritative, and failing miserably.
Vegita rolled his eyes and groaned with frustration. "Woman, there's no time for this," he said angrily. "I can't be out there helping them take care of Ginyu if I'm in here arguing with you, can I? Now get in!" He grabbed her around the waist with both his hands, and before she could utter a single protest, he picked her up and plunked her down onto the seat inside the rejuvenation tank. He shoved the breathing mask up to her face, and strapped it on.
Bulma resigned herself to the fact that this was one fight she wasn't going to win. She still didn't trust him, of course, but she knew that he was all Kuririn and Gohan had left. She could sense them both getting weaker out there. Ginyu was winning.
Vegita closed the tank and punched some buttons on the door. As the blue liquid began to rise around her, Bulma immediately began to fall asleep. The last thing she saw before she drifted off was Vegita's face staring at her through the window.
On to the next Chapter!
