"Wasn't it destroyed by a meteor impact?" Nappa said, as if it were obvious.
"Hahaha." Raditz burst out laughing, a bitter edge to it, remembering when he'd learned the truth half a year ago. "Nappa, we're the battle race, the Saiyans."
"What kind of meteor could destroy the entire Planet Vegeta and annihilate nearly all our people scattered across the universe?"
"On Planet Vegeta, warriors with power levels over ten thousand existed. Even regular asteroids, they could destroy with one hand. After transforming, their power would increase tenfold."
"How could a single meteor possibly destroy our home planet? Even if we assume the meteor was impossible to resist, why didn't a single Saiyan manage to escape?"
Raditz's words left Nappa stunned. It was a perspective he'd never considered.
"Nappa, have you forgotten? Before the so-called meteor struck the home planet, we received an urgent order to return immediately. Not long after, the home planet was 'destroyed by a meteor.'"
As Raditz spoke, Nappa began recalling that situation. There had indeed been an order to return, but Prince Vegeta had chosen to ignore it. That was how they'd survived.
And the person who'd issued that order was Frieza!
Nappa's temples throbbed with veins again. Sweat poured down his forehead. Whether from rage or fear, he couldn't tell.
"Haha, remembered now?" Raditz gave a hollow laugh. "What truly destroyed the home planet and annihilated the Saiyans wasn't any meteor. It was the one we've 'served' for decades: the Emperor of the Universe."
"FRIEZA! I'll kill him!" As Raditz revealed the truth, Nappa's eyes turned blood-red. His whiskers practically flew upward.
"Nappa, you can't do it. Not with your current strength. Neither can I." Raditz spoke bluntly. "How strong Frieza is, how massive the Frieza Force is, I think you know better than me. Even with my greatly increased power, I can at most defeat an officer of the Frieza Force."
Nappa's mind was too simple, too impulsive. It was a weakness in battle, but also an advantage, it made him easier to control.
'He'll ask me for help in the next second.' Raditz thought.
As expected.
"How do I get stronger, Raditz, tell me!" Nappa shouted at him impatiently. He wished he could kill Frieza with his own hands the next instant.
Seeing his goal achieved, Raditz walked to the side as he spoke. "It's simple. You need to serve-"
A small figure appeared before Nappa.
"Prince Casarot!"
It was Son Gohan (Saiyan Name: Casarot), Piccolo's heir, The Future Demon King, with a hairstyle remarkably similar to Yamcha's, but with an seriousness gleam in their eyes. No, calling them a young person wasn't quite right. They looked more like a child.
"An Earthling?" Once Nappa saw the visitor's appearance, he immediately shouted, "Out of their depth! I'm from a noble Saiyan lineage. How could I possibly serve some Earthling? Have you lost your mind, Raditz?"
Raditz asked, "Nappa, are you still clinging to the former glory of the Saiyans?"
"I'll kill Frieza someday, but there's no way I'm serving a child."
"Nappa, do you think that's possible?" Raditz shook his head. "Do you know what Frieza's power level is?"
Nappa's heart stirred. "You know how strong he is?"
Frieza's power level had always been a mystery within the Frieza Force. Some officers said he had a power level over 200,000. Others said 400,000. But exactly how strong Frieza was, no one knew. Frieza killed people with just one finger if anyone asked about it or tried to look into it. A soft pop was all it took.
"530,000!" Raditz declared flatly.
"What?"
530,000, Nappa didn't even have a power level of 10,000. Even if Vegeta transformed into Oozaru and reached 180,000, it was still nowhere close.
"He also has transformation abilities. Each time he transforms, his power level doubles. Three transformations total."
"Is he really that strong?"
Each transformation doubled his power, which meant Frieza's strength climbed into the millions. In truth, Frieza's full power level was 120,000,000, a number that would have been despair-inducing in the early stages of Dragon Ball Z. But telling them would just make him give up completely.
"So we don't stand a chance?"
"No, there is hope. The Demon King and the future Demon King we serve possess that same power." Raditz spoke like a fanatic, his black eyes flickering with what looked like red light. "Under their leadership, defeating Frieza is possible."
"I," Nappa seemed swayed. "But he's an Earthling."
"What if he isn't purely an Earthling? What if he has half Saiyan blood?"
"What? A Saiyan? Whose child is he?"
With even half Saiyan blood, acceptance became possible. As for Vegeta, they were going to kill him anyway. Such a prince was expendable.
"My brother's son, Kakarot's child! Son Gohan!"
"You may also call him by his Saiyan name: Casarot."
"And he is the next Demon King."
Raditz bowed slightly toward Gohan. "Would you please demonstrate your power to your future loyal subordinate?"
Gohan simply nodded, saying nothing.
The next instant, under Nappa's astonished gaze, Gohan's power level began to surge. Nappa's mouth dropped open wider and wider, until-
*BOOM!*
Scouter shattered.
Elsewhere, Krillin and Tien sensed Gohan's ki and were deeply shaken.
Piccolo is at it again, what an enormous ki.
"Did you see that? That's only a fraction of Prince Casarot's power. And most importantly, he's only five years old."
In that moment, Nappa, crushed under the weight of Frieza's nearly invincible power level, saw a glimmer of hope for revenge.
To hell with Saiyan pride. As long as Frieza could be killed, nothing else mattered.
'He destroyed my homeworld. He killed my family. He has to die.'
Many believed saiyans didn't value family ties. That wasn't entirely true. It was just that years of constant combat had numbed them to familial bonds.
"Raditz, I'm in."
Nappa extended his right hand. Raditz gripped it firmly.
"We're teammates again."
On a primitive planet far from Earth, five warriors were locked in an intense battle. On one side stood Cooler's Armored Squadron, the legendary trio.
They were Cooler's most trusted subordinates. Cooler called himself the brother of Frieza, the Emperor of the Universe. According to the official setting, all three had a power level between 170,000 and 180,000.
On the other side stood a warrior with his arms crossed and his face turned green.
He beckoned to the three members of the Armored Squadron with one finger and said coldly, "Don't waste my time. All of you, come at me together."
Without another word, the three charged straight at Piccolo.
Thirty minutes later, a single Explosive Demon Flash from Piccolo hit them directly. They turned to ash.
"Piccolo, we agreed on ten minutes of fighting. You used up half an hour. And you blasted them into nothing. What am I supposed to do now?" Goku flew over as Piccolo finished the battle, complaining with obvious displeasure.
"Ninety percent of my ki was sealed. Plus the cursed seal messing things up, I couldn't control my strength properly." Piccolo shot Goku an irritated glare and pointed at his own neck. "Getting this far was hard enough."
Naruto had developed a way to use sealing jutsu to limit power while simultaneously using the cursed seal to train ki micro-control.
"It's fine, Goku. You can fight them as many times as you want." Naruto appeared before the two and snapped his fingers casually.
At the snap, countless paper-like fragments gathered together. Cooler's Armored Squadron reappeared at the same spot, fully intact.
Edo Tensei.
After the Dragon Ball-verse entered the Namek Arc, the opponents they faced had no spiritual abilities. Aside from their overwhelming ki, they were simply physically strong, technically, the best choice for sparring partners.
'Damn it. Killing us once wasn't enough. He is toying with our souls over and over', Salza, the leader of the Armored Squadron, cursed. 'Lord Cooler will never forgive you.'
Unfortunately, Salza's body was beyond his control. He couldn't even speak. He could only curse endlessly in his heart.
Naruto simply beckoned with a finger. The trio charged toward Goku.
"I've been waiting forever for this." Goku cracked his knuckles. The sound was like firecrackers. He stared at the incoming three with full battle intent.
Infinite regeneration made for the perfect punching bag.
"It's Goku Time!"
Earth, high in the sky.
Covered in wounds, his battle armor torn and battered, Vegeta looked up at the sky, searching for something.
After being hit by Yamcha's Spirit Ball Version Kamehameha, he hadn't charged down recklessly to cause trouble. Instead, he'd used the explosion to ride the updraft into the high atmosphere, searching for the moon.
"I thought it was strange earlier. I didn't see the moon up here. Damn Earthlings. Did they destroy it in preparation for this battle?"
According to the canon timeline, the moon wasn't destroyed at the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, it was simply pushed away by Roshi's full-power attack. The moon was truly destroyed when Piccolo destroyed it during the Saiyan invasion, when Gohan transformed into Oozaru upon seeing it.
But now, the moon still hung intact in the sky. The thing was, ordinary people couldn't see it. It was only visible from extremely high altitudes or in the upper sky. Vegeta's current position happened to meet that condition.
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