It's over.  The pain, the fear.  It's all gone.  I must be dead.  I take a deep breath and open my eyes.  The sky overhead is dark gray and lightning forks down every minute or so.  The air is thick and heavy, making breathing difficult.   I try to sit up but I am pinned to the ground.  An unfamiliar feeling of panic rushes over me and I begin to struggle frantically all the while, certain that my struggles are useless.
    I gasp as cold icy hands begin to tear at my clothes and skin.  I have to get away, but I feel like I'm being held down by an insane amount of gravity.  The pressure on my chest has become a dull, burning pain as I gasp for air.  Sweat runs down my face and I shake with fear.  But fear of what?  Then I see it.  A form of a woman with long, black hair pounces on me, her flesh is icy and stinks of death.  I moan in agony, revulsion overcoming me.  I wrench and twist and try to throw her off.  Soft hissing noises are coming from her but she has no eyes, nose, or mouth.  But then the smell of burning flesh fills my nose and I see smoke rising from her skin.  I feel her sharp nails dig into my muscles and soon there are totally numb as if filled with some vile poison.  I hear a pitiful whimpering sound and realize its me.  The wounds caused by her nails turned bright red and burned as if on fire. And I saw smoke coming from them and screamed in agony as I caught on fire and was quickly consumed.
    I woke, hours, days, years later. I could not tell which.  My skin was charred and black, and throbbed painfully.  Dead mice crawled on my body and began to bite me.
"No!" I cried, and leapt to my feet! Whatever spell had been on me was broken, and my skin was no longer burnt.  But the sky was unchanged.  Where am I?
    A bony hand grasped my shoulder, I gasped and leapt away.  A wretched, deformed, old hag stood where I just had.
    "You are in the Land of the Dead.  Didn't you know?  Your dead, dead just like me and everything here."

II: Endless Death

    "No!" he cried.  The pain from the wounds from Frieza came back tenfold.  His throat and neck felt crushed like his lower spine.  He could feel himself bleeding internally.  He began to choke and blood spewed from his mouth.  Pain sliced through his heart  as the hole tore open.  His lungs filled with blood and his heartbeat slowed.  The old woman laughed hideously. Her voice a high-pitched cackle.
    Vegeta sank to his knees, blood spilling from his lips.  He felt himself drift into unconsciousness again, but knew with dread certainty that his pain had just begun.

    "Wake up, Prince of Saiyans." A shrill voice commanded.  Vegeta slowly opened his eyes as he choked on his blood.  He felt himself being pulled up to a sitting position.  A twisted demon stood before him, grinning vehemently.  "We're going to watch a movie.  Sound like fun?" Vegeta couldn't reply.  Thorned tentacles had begun to wrap around his neck, arms, and legs as soon as the imp began to speak, forcing him to stare at the screen.
    His surroundings grew black as pitch and Vegeta writhed in anguish as the tentacles' grip tightened.  The thorns ripped into his flesh and he screamed as they grew longer and began to pierce his internal organs.  He gagged as blood bubbled from his mouth.
    He felt faint suddenly, and thanked the Gods as he began to slip into unconsciousness for a third time.
    "Not so fast, Vegeta!" the whiny demon admonished.  "We have yet to watch the film, wake up!" Electricity coursed through Vegeta's body. He shrieked and thrashed as the currents whipped his body about.  Never in his life had he been so helpless.  The current stopped.  Vegeta gasped in agony and squeezed his eyes shut, holding back tears of rage and pain.
    "W-why?" he whimpered.  The demon chortled and leapt on Vegeta's chest.
    "We'll find out won't we?" he heard a click which was followed by the sound of something spinning.  He felt a horrible, unnatural heat to his right.  He slowly opened his eyes.  Before him was a rotting screen in the center of a decrepit stage made of bones, flesh and other things Vegeta couldn't guess at.  Picture began to flash on the screen.
     "Look! Look!" the demon squealed.  Vegeta stared in astonishment.
    It was.. Him! He stared at himself as a little boy running through the halls of his father's castle.  Chibi Vegeta ran as fast as he could, servants shrieked and scattered at his approach, knowing that if they were in his way too long, they would most likely be killed.  He ran from the guards that chased him, guards that tried to get him to his father.
    Vegeta stared at the image before him in awe.  He remembered what he was seeing!  He'd been only five at the time and knew what was coming, he shuddered at the thought.  Chibi Vegeta turned the corner…
    And there was his Father.  He gasped and tried to turn around but it was too late.
    "Damn brat!" King Vegeta yelled.  He reached out and grabbed the squirming boy by his tail.  A shriek echoed throughout the halls.  King Vegeta paid no attention to the boys cries and hauled him to the throne room by his tail.
    By time they reached the throne room, Chibi Vegeta was screaming in agony, tears pouring down his face.  If only his damned father would let go of his tail!
    "How many times have I told you not to disrespect me! I called you here and you refused to come and even ran away!  Such disrespect shall be punished!" he lifted his right hand, curling it into a fist and brought it down on Vegeta's small head.  The boy was instantly unconscious.
Vegeta tried to turn away but the thorns and tentacles held him in place.
    "Please.." he moaned. "No.." the demon laughed, a high-pitched cackle.
    "But there's so much more I want to show you."  Vegeta whimpered as every evil thing he'd done or had been done to him flashed on the screen.  Some things he saw he didn't remember at first, but the memories hit him full force once he realized he'd buried and forgotten them because of the pain they caused.  And the image of him on the screen was only 12 years old.  Please no! Vegeta thought with dread, it can only get worse from here!
    And it did.
    Every embarrassing, horrible, vile, disgusting thing he'd ever done was there on display.  He shuddered in disgust at himself! He wept, clenching his eyes shut.
    "No, no!" the demon snapped, Vegeta's eyes flew open by themselves.  "Not yet!"  He hated himself.  Hated what he'd become, hated to remember and acknowledge all the filthy, sickening acts he'd committed.
    Mass executions, planets destroyed, children slaughtered, women raped by Saiyan warriors.  Vegeta watched all he had caused with a single gesture, a spoken word.  What could he give to take it all back? If only to spare him this pain!  He watched the deaths of those he manipulated and used to his own ends.  He watched his trip to Earth to get the Dragonballs, he watched himself fail.
    "Noo!" he shrieked, trashing in the chair, ignoring the thorns that tore his flesh.
    "Almost done, impatient one!" the demon chuckled, stroking Vegeta's bloody cheek.  The prince shrank away in horror at the dead, slimy touch.
    He opened his eyes to see himself on Namek.  He watched as he destroyed, maimed, and was beaten in return by Zarbon, Racoom, and then Frieza.  He watched Frieza destroy his body, he remembered the pain.  The last thing he saw was Kakarott before the film ended.  He sobbed in relief as it ended.
    "Bra-vo!" the demon clapped his rotting hands.  "Truly wonderful if I do say so myself...  Which I do.  Hee hee!"  The thorns pulled out of his body, leaving gaping, bloody holes.  The tentacles released their grip.  He slumped forward lifelessly.  His mind was numb, his body still was wracked with pain, and the demon still chattered away in his ear.
"…make a fine general, yes indeed.  Our Master will be pleased, He prefers His generals to come from violence.  We shall have to descend a few levels to meet Him, but we've got all the time in the world."  Vegeta couldn't hear him anymore except for an enraged shriek.
"NO! He's ours! You can't have him back!".  Then nothing…

Part 3: Guilt
    Vegeta opened his eyes and stared into the face of Radditz.  With a startled gasp he sat up.
    "Leave me alone!" he yelled. "I didn't do anything to you!" Radditz backed off with a slightly sad smile.
    "Yes my prince." Vegeta paused and examined the figure before him more closely.
    "Radditz?" the tall saiyan nodded.  "What are you doing here?"
    "I heard you were here.  I thought… How are you?" he asked, staring down at the dead prince.  Vegeta felt his searching gaze and snarled angrily.
    "I'm fine baka, what's it to you?" Radditz smiled softly, Vegeta repressed a shudder. This was totally unlike the saiyan he'd known.  "What?!" he snapped, not liking the feel of his eyes boring into his flesh.
    "Hell changes people.  But you seem the same still…" Radditz sighed, Vegeta was getting angry, he didn't like Radditz's behavior at all.
    "Damn right.  Now why are you bothering me?" Radditz frowned.
    "If you wish to be alone…" he turned to leave.  It was then that Vegeta realized he didn't want to be alone.  Not after he'd just found a familiar face, someone that didn't make him angry or afraid, or cause him pain.
    "No." he said.  Radditz stopped as if someone had just grabbed his tail.  Vegeta felt uncomfortable.  He hated the feeling.  "I.." his voice trailed off uncertainly.  Radditz hid a smile and began to prattle about his time spent in hell, allowing Vegeta to sit in silence and overcome his shame at needing company.
    "…it's been awhile since I've seen you.  I just saw Nappa yesterday.  I hope we don't run into him.  He's still pissed at you for killing him-."
    "Nappa?" Vegeta finally said at last.  "Angry at me?" Radditz nodded.  "That fool should thank me!  Why would any Saiyan want to live as a cripple?"
    "It's better than hell." Vegeta snorted.  He didn't know, that, he always thought would be a hell all its own.  Radditz didn't quite know how to take Vegeta's silence so he continued.
    "You father-." Vegeta cut him off.
    "Yes, what of him? Where is the old bastard?"
    "Not far from here.  Do you wish to see him?"
    "No." Vegeta snorted.  "I don't miss him."  Radditz didn't know why he felt compelled to.. Comfort? Was that the right word? He didn't know, but being in hell had taught him many things, and one of the main things was it's better to be miserable with someone else then miserable by yourself.

Part 4: Rescue
     "He is my charge and I demand he be returned from hell to wait at the check-in station with the others! King Yama, you saw his file, he can be wished back still!"  Ueki cried.  King Yama stared down at her silently, a soft smile on his lips.
    "Who will wish him back?" he inquired.  “Who on Chikyuu wishes him alive?"
    "Goku." Ueki replied in a small voice.  King Yama sighed, she was right as much as he disliked admitting.
    "Very well. But you'd better keep an eye on him."

    Ueki drifted through the hells to where Vegeta was kept.  She felt his presence and headed towards it and found him in the pits of despair with a fellow Saiyan.
    They saw her coming and Radditz leapt to his feet.  Ueki felt pure joy as she saw Vegeta tell him to sit and calm himself.  He did not fear her, he knew her at last.
    "Hello." Vegeta smiled at her. "Where did you go?" he asked politely.  Radditz stared in astonishment.
    "To speak with the king of the dead, I have come to take you back to the check-in station." Radditzs' eyes were wide as saucers.  Ueki smiled, her angelic wings flapped lazily, her feet never touching the ground.
    "V-Vegeta, who is this?" he sputtered.  Vegeta responded, never tearing his eyes from her.
    "My angel."  Radditz looked confused.
    "Wha-?"
    "I am a guardian angel.  I watch over Vegeta.  Fate has decreed that he has much yet to do, I am to take him back so that he may be wished back with the rest."
    "Damn you Vegeta." Radditz smirked.  "You and you luck."  Vegeta smiled.
    "See you later."  Radditz watched as they disappeared.
    "Perhaps...  Perhaps not."

    The eternal dragon of Earth was summoned.  Mr. Popo begged the dragon to revive everyone killed by Frieza, and after long minutes that seemed to drag on as Goku fought as a Super Saiyan against Frieza, the wish was granted.

Part 5: Alive

    Vegeta woke.  He knew he was some place different.  He no longer could smell the burning flesh and the stench of coagulating blood.  He smelled…
    Dirt.  Vegeta thrust his arm forward then sat up.  he felt something soft and damp crumbling off his skin and suddenly fresh air and sunlight hit him in the face.  He gasped as air seemed to fill his lungs for the first time in years.
    "I'm alive.." he said in wonder.  He crawled out of his grave and stumbled up, stretching.  The suns warmed his blood and took away the chill of the grave.  "What if this is a dream?" he wondered aloud.  He punched himself in the stomach as hard as he could, instantly doubling over, gasping for breath.  He fell to his knees, but he ignored the pain.  Harsh laughter erupted from his lips.
    "I'm alive!" he cried, laughing, gasping.  "But how?"  He then sensed two outrageous ki energies.  Kakarotto and Frieza! I have to find them!  He took off in a blue burst of ki.