The two of them met in midair.
Vegeta drove a punch into Zarbon's nose.
Zarbon drove a punch just as hard into Vegeta's face.
They separated.
Zarbon's mouth curled into a cold smirk.
Vegeta was panting heavily, battered and in pain.
"I was quite surprised when I discovered I could transform," Zarbon said brightly. "Vegeta, you made the mistake of underestimating me — and now you're about to die at my hands."
Bitterness churned in Vegeta's chest.
Damn it.
I can't even beat Zarbon?
And I thought I was going to challenge Frieza?
Does that mean only Kakarot's Super Saiyan form can beat Frieza?
"Die, Vegeta!" Zarbon said, and fired a blast straight at him.
Vegeta's eyes went wide. He leapt sideways in a desperate dodge.
Whoosh!
Zarbon flickered and reappeared behind Vegeta, wrapping both arms around him in a lock.
Vegeta's expression cycled through a string of changes.
Whoosh!
Zarbon dragged Vegeta's body into a headfirst nosedive, plummeting straight down, aimed directly at the ground below.
Just before impact, Zarbon hit the brakes — and released Vegeta.
Vegeta shot downward like a cannonball and drove headfirst into the ground, carving out a crater of considerable depth.
BOOM!
The whole surface of Planet Namek shook.
The crater Vegeta had made was so violent it shattered the banks of the nearby lake. Water came rushing into the depression, submerging Vegeta beneath the surface.
Glug... glug... glug...
The sound of bubbling rose from the lake.
Zarbon hovered high above, scanning the water below.
Then he checked his scouter.
"Battle power reading gone. That easy? Looks like he's dead." Zarbon murmured to himself. "Even if he's not dead, he's out cold. He'll drown. Poor guy."
He stayed above the lake a while longer, waiting patiently, watching for any sign of movement.
He didn't go down into the water to check — Zarbon had an aversion to getting wet and had no intention of soaking himself.
Several more minutes passed.
The lake was perfectly still.
Vegeta appeared to be thoroughly dead.
"Looks like that really is the end of him..." Zarbon shook his head. "Damn, Dodoria — you fool, getting yourself killed by him like that... Now I have to go find Lord Frieza on my own."
With that, Zarbon lingered no longer. He streaked off as a bolt of light and was gone.
About a minute after Zarbon left.
Deep at the bottom of the lake.
Vegeta's eyes snapped open. Wide awake, he immediately surveyed his surroundings.
Where is this?
How did I end up underwater?
And... what is wrong with my body?
Why do I feel this wretched and weak?
Vegeta clenched his jaw, pushed through the brutal pain radiating from his body, and swam upward toward the surface, emerging onto the bank, stumbling as he stepped onto solid ground.
He looked around in every direction.
"Where is this?" Vegeta was momentarily disoriented, and felt utterly bewildered.
A short silence.
"Why do I feel like this is Planet Namek?" Vegeta frowned. "What in the world is going on?"
Did that Goku Black kill me?
No — even if I died, how would I end up on Planet Namek?
And what happened to Kakarot?
Something is very wrong here.
Vegeta carefully reassessed his body — and to his growing dismay, found not only that it was badly injured, but that it felt disturbingly, abnormally weak.
In that moment, Vegeta felt as though he'd been thrown seventeen years back in time.
He immediately extended his senses across the planet, probing for ki signatures.
There — in the distance, a faint but familiar energy. Zarbon.
Vegeta went still, momentarily blank.
That ki feels strangely familiar.
Go confirm it.
Whoosh!
Vegeta launched himself unsteadily into the air and headed toward Zarbon's energy.
Poor Zarbon — still out there hunting for Frieza's whereabouts and completely oblivious.
Then, as Zarbon's scouter suddenly picked up a battle power reading heading straight toward him, he did a double take.
"Vegeta?" Zarbon blinked, confused. "This guy is still alive?"
A brief pause.
"Even if Vegeta's still breathing, he shouldn't be flying toward me — he can't beat me. He should be running," Zarbon reasoned out loud, puzzled.
Then again, it quickly clicked for him.
Vegeta doesn't have a scouter. He probably just stumbled my way by accident.
What a fool.
Fine — since I didn't finish him off before, I'll just go do it now.
Whoosh!
Zarbon stopped waiting and flew toward Vegeta instead.
The two met in the air.
Vegeta's eyes sharpened the moment he saw who was in front of him. His expression became decidedly complicated.
"Zarbon?" Vegeta asked, not entirely certain. "Is that you?"
Zarbon: "????"
Zarbon was also thrown off.
Is Vegeta losing it?
He's acting just like Lord Frieza.
Got beaten up and lost his memory.
"Vegeta — forget so soon?" Zarbon couldn't help but be exasperated. "You've got some nerve showing your face to me again. Or did you just have terrible luck flying straight into me? I was starting to think you were dead. Guess you're tougher than you look."
Vegeta stared at him, completely blank.
What are you talking about?
I can't understand a single thing you're saying.
"You really are Zarbon — how are you alive?" Vegeta asked.
Zarbon went still again.
The two of them were clearly on completely different wavelengths.
"I've got it," Vegeta said, a thought clicking into place. "When Frieza was revived, you came back too?"
"What are you going on about? Have you lost your mind, Vegeta?" Zarbon's brow creased.
"Is this Planet Namek?" Vegeta asked.
Zarbon: "..."
Zarbon had nothing to say.
Vegeta has definitely lost his mind.
"Could it be..." A thought sparked brilliantly in Vegeta's mind, sudden and electric.
Could it be that I, Vegeta, have been reborn?
I died fighting Goku Black... and then I was reborn here, during the Frieza era on Planet Namek?
I remember — in this battle, I died at Frieza's hands.
And then Kakarot became a Super Saiyan.
That was the moment when my nightmare truly began.
From that point on, I almost never managed to surpass Kakarot.
Not even when Goku Black appeared — the gap between me and Kakarot was still vast.
Back in Trunks's timeline, Kakarot and I fused using the Potara Earrings.
I could clearly sense it — Kakarot's power had left mine far, far behind.
First things first — confirm whether I've actually been reborn.
To be continued…
No update tomorrow