"Answer me, Zarbon!" Vegeta looked at him steadily. "What about Frieza? Is he still alive?"
"What kind of question is that?" Zarbon said with a cold snort. "Of course Lord Frieza is alive. Vegeta, you're getting bolder by the day. Do you even know who you're talking to?"
"What year is it right now?" Vegeta said, ignoring him completely.
Zarbon: "..."
Zarbon was genuinely at a loss.
Why are you asking what year it is, just like Lord Frieza did?
"You don't need to know that, because you're about to die!" Zarbon said with a cold laugh, and a burst of energy suddenly shot from his palm.
The energy beam raced toward Vegeta.
Vegeta looked at it coming — and batted it away with a backhand slap.
CRACK!
Zarbon's blast was swatted out of the sky.
BOOM!
The deflected beam detonated in the air, blooming into brilliant colour.
"What?" Zarbon's expression froze, completely at a loss.
Vegeta was badly injured.
How did he swat my blast away that easily?
"Since you won't answer, I'll beat it out of you," Vegeta said with a short snort, and charged in, putting everything behind a solid punch to Zarbon's body.
Then — nothing. No follow-up. The punch barely registered.
Zarbon stared at Vegeta with cold, utterly contemptuous eyes. He let out a light laugh. "Are you tickling me? That's hilarious. You said you'd beat it out of me!"
Vegeta: "..."
Vegeta felt a stab of something deeply unpleasant.
This body is pathetic.
It feels like my battle power barely clears twenty thousand.
Maybe I really have been reborn.
Because there's no other way I'd be this weak.
If I was actually reborn... then at this stage, I can't beat Zarbon. That explains everything.
"Vegeta — what you just did has officially made me furious. I'll make you understand exactly what you've gotten yourself into," Zarbon said with a contemptuous smile. Unwilling to take chances, he immediately shifted into his Beast Form.
Whoosh!
Zarbon launched himself at Vegeta.
The corner of Vegeta's mouth curved upward. He swung his hand casually at the incoming Zarbon.
Whoosh!
In an instant, a Destructo Disc shot from Vegeta's hand, screaming toward Zarbon.
"Hmph — parlour tricks," Zarbon said contemptuously, reaching out with his open hand to grab the disc.
SHING!
The Destructo Disc carved through Zarbon's arm like it was nothing.
"AAAAUGH—!"
Zarbon let out a scream fit for a slaughterhouse. The stump of his severed arm erupted, spraying blood.
"There we go," Vegeta said, the corner of his mouth lifting in a thin smile.
"Ahh — ahh — AHHH—!"
Zarbon's screams came in an unbroken torrent. The blood kept pouring from the wound, forming a green fountain in the air.
"You — you ANIMAL!" Zarbon erupted with fury, his whole body shaking, forehead veins bulging, face contorted in rage, voice tearing itself apart in a wrenching howl. "How?! My battle power is HIGHER than yours! Your attack shouldn't have been able to hurt me!"
"Naive," Vegeta said with a cool smile. "That technique concentrates all of its energy into a single edge and uses rapid rotation to inflict damage. You were so confident in your superior battle power that you didn't bother to guard against it — and that's exactly why you got hit."
Even as he said it, Vegeta felt a small flicker of private feeling.
I remember — Krillin came up with this technique.
And it really does come in handy at the right moment.
This kind of technique — one look is all it takes for me, Vegeta, to master it.
Good thing Kakarot isn't here. Otherwise he'd be going on about how I used Krillin's Destructo Disc.
"You... you BASTARD!" Zarbon screamed.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Vegeta didn't stand on ceremony. He closed in and beat Zarbon savagely.
Zarbon had no strength left to resist.
Mainly because the severed arm was screaming with pain, limiting his movement and sending his battle power into freefall.
Thirty seconds later.
Vegeta planted his foot on Zarbon's head and slowly increased the pressure.
"Ready to answer my questions now?" Vegeta said coldly.
"I — I'll tell you! I'll tell you anything!" Zarbon had completely caved.
"What year is it right now?" Vegeta asked.
"By your Saiyan reckoning... Planet Vegeta was destroyed twenty-five years ago," Zarbon answered.
Something moved across Vegeta's face.
I really was reborn.
Damn Goku Black.
So that's how I die at your hands.
A cold bitterness settled inside him.
But then Vegeta ran the numbers — and something close to frenzied joy began to overtake him.
I've been reborn.
Which means if I just train, I'll recover my Super Saiyan Blue form before long.
And with that, I, Vegeta, will leave Kakarot in the dust permanently.
Super Saiyan 2. Super Saiyan God. Super Saiyan Blue. I'll achieve all of them.
And if I reach them all before Kakarot — I'd love to see the look on his face.
Just thinking about it made Vegeta's chest surge with excitement, his body trembling slightly with it. He looked up at the green sky of Namek, and almost — almost — let a tear fall.
I'll never be second best again.
I, Vegeta, will leave Kakarot behind once and for all.
Zarbon: "????"
Zarbon stared at him in complete bewilderment.
Your entire race has been extinct for twenty-five years.
Is this teary-eyed, barely-holding-it-together expression of yours some kind of act?
Zarbon had no words.
"Where's Frieza? Why can't I sense his ki?" Vegeta asked next.
"Lord Frieza may have lost consciousness," Zarbon said, thinking a moment before answering honestly.
"What? He lost consciousness?" Vegeta's brow furrowed, and a bad feeling hit him immediately. He asked urgently, "Don't tell me — has Kakarot already turned Super Saiyan?"
"He... yes," Zarbon confirmed with a nod.
Vegeta: "..."
So I've been reborn just a little too late.
Why couldn't I have come back before Kakarot went Super Saiyan?
...Fine. Doesn't matter.
Next up should be the Androids and Cell.
I'll find somewhere to train for a while. By the time the Cell Games roll around, I'll give everyone something to be shocked about.
And my future son should be appearing in this era on Earth in about a year.
I need to meet that kid properly.
I should make sure he feels what it's like to have a father.
This version of Vegeta — reborn, reflective — had come a long way from the ruthless Saiyan he once was, already transforming into something closer to the devoted husband and father he would become.
His mind made up, Vegeta felt enough strength returning to his body that he stamped down and crushed Zarbon's skull.
Then he pushed off from the ground and launched himself into the air, heading toward Frieza's spacecraft.
To be continued…