Chapter Text
Planet Vegeta. A planet of a proud warrior species known as the saiyans. Ruthless fighters.
Even Planet Vegeta isn’t their original one. Their home planet, Planet Sadala, has been destroyed long ago during a civil war. And so, the saiyans from the winning faction found another one, with gravity and atmosphere similar enough to Sadala’s, and conquered it, killing every single local and then renaming the planet after the saiyan king at the time, Vegeta the Second.
Its landscape is dull and dirty. The plants are tough and tasteless. The winds are extremely rough and at times feel like sandpaper.
Just like its new denizens, most would say. In fact, it’s a miracle that the tuffles, the previous species to call the planet home, even managed to thrive in such an environment for long enough to have billions of members of their species all over the globe in large, sprawling cities with advanced technology.
The tuffles were the complete opposite of the saiyans. The tuffles were tiny and often didn’t have much muscle mass, the saiyans are often tall and muscular once they hit puberty. The tuffles relied on their technology to keep them safe, the saiyans relied on their physical strength and internal power. The tuffles built their cities to keep the wild and dangerous environment of their planet at bay, the saiyans relished in the challenge of surviving in such environment.
Such a world is perfect for a warrior race like the saiyans. Such a challenging planet to live in makes sure nobody will ever be soft and fragile. Even the weakest of saiyans are stronger than most other species out there.
Most other species.
King Cold, Freeza, Cooler… All are above the warrior species and are the de facto rulers of all saiyans. They have been for well over a century. Them and the saiyans are not even on the same playing field, even though almost any saiyan would never admit to it unless it’s to appease said rulers.
The King of All Saiyans, Vegeta the Sixth, may be allowed to exist, but Freeza’s word is the actual law.
And the law stated that all saiyans are to return to Planet Vegeta today.
A saiyan male warrior, wearing a rather standard battle armor with blue combat pants underneath, is inside a ship returning to his planet. He has somewhat of a tan skin and a distinct scar on his left cheek. His black tail is wrapped around his waist.
Bardock. One of the few low-class warriors known to be comparable to an elite. He has a power level that makes the saiyan race proud and is a man who does what he has to do and does it right.
As he stares at the dark depths of space, he finds himself thinking about what happened two days ago…
It was supposed to be yet another simple job. Drop in from space, use his oozaru form, exterminate all of the inhabitants, get out. “Then why is it suddenly so difficult…”
Bardock is staring at the cerealian mother and her two children. Those three. They’re the ones to blame.
He had just began to transform into his oozaru form in order to quickly deal with the cerealians, which have been holding their own for so long that it was decided to send Bardock’s team as reinforcements, when he was forcibly reverted back into his normal saiyan form by one of the surprisingly powerful inhabitants destroying the moon.
And then he saw them.
A woman, fiercely protecting her two children. A boy and a girl. For a brief moment, the image of Gine, Kakarot and Daiko flashed on his mind.
Before he knew it, he was instead helping them evade the other saiyans, some of which were part of his own team, and sneak towards a more secluded area where the Cerealian mother said they would be safe.
The group was almost caught after the mother’s son had been just barely stopped from screaming. One second later, and they would probably all be dead.
Once they arrived, they were met by a Namekian who introduced himself as Monaito. He was hiding other Cerealians who had managed to evade the attacks by using magic to mask the power levels of everyone within his house.
Right now, the mother is staring at the saiyan. Her eyes are filled with confusion and pain as tears threaten to leak out. She is almost failing at holding back her voice. “Why? Why did you protect us? Why didn’t you just kill us?”
Bardock just grunts and leaves. He has a contemplative look to his face, something unusual to him. “Why indeed…”
Bardock is snapped out of his thoughts by the pilot of the ship. “We’re about to land on Planet Vegeta!”
He stares at the planet he calls home. “Why would Freeza order for every single saiyan to come to Planet Vegeta so suddenly? Something’s not adding up…”
The ship lands and he exits it, taking his belongings and walking towards his house where his mate, Gine, and two of their children are waiting. He has always been unusually attached to the ones closest to him. Even Kakarot, with his pitifully low power level not even fit for a saiyan cook, much less a warrior, doesn’t really have the disdain of Bardock. After a few minutes, he arrives at his destination.
The architecture of the saiyans of the lower class isn’t anything fancy. There’s no real need to. Most low-class saiyans are constantly out, only coming back to Planet Vegeta to rest for a few hours or use a healing tank, none of which really requires staying for longer than two or three days.
As Bardock enters his home, he is instantly greeted by the familiar face of Gine, who is smiling widely. “Bardock! You’re back!”
The man just plainly replies, but is smiling. “Yes.”
Then, his daughter, Daiko, appears. She’s currently four years old. She has short, spiky black hair that looks somewhat similar to Gine’s and the expected saiyan tail swigging behind her. Her height is a little above average for her age. She is wearing a rather standard black and gold armor with blue combat pants and blue wristbands, but the armor doesn’t have shoulder pads. She smiles. “Father! How was the battle?”
Bardock thinks for a moment. “It was nothing special. They barely put up a resistance.”
Gine begins cutting up pieces of meat. “Lord Freeza has called for all saiyans to return home. Do you think Raditz will come back in time?”
Bardock looks like he is in deep thought before suddenly speaking with some sense of urgency. “We need to get you three off-world.”
That makes Gine instantly stop her arm mid-cut. She has a look of pure astonishment on her face. “What? Why?”
The man looks serious. “I just have a gut feeling. Something is going to happen, and I want to make sure that at least some of us survives.”
Daiko furrows her eyebrows. “You think he is going to attack us?”
Bardock hesitates for a second before answering. “…Yes.”
The girl tilts her head. “But… why? We’ve been serving Lord Freeza loyally for ages…”
The saiyan male sighs. “I don’t know. Just- Listen to me. I’m going to get you an attack ball and some older scouters I have laying around. I’ll send you somewhere safe.”
Daiko begins speaking. “I don’t-”
She was, however, cut off by Gine. “We’ll do it.”
The girl has a look of apprehension on her face. “Mother, are you sure?”
Her mother just nods in affirmation. “Trust your father. Almost every time he had a ‘gut feeling’ about something, he turned out to be right. Sometimes, it feels like he can see the future.” She chuckles.
It has been a few hours and it is now nighttime. Raditz really didn’t come back, something that both worries and comforts the small family of saiyans. There is a chance that he just decided to ignore the order to return to Planet Vegeta for one reason or another.
Bardock spent the entire afternoon acquiring a large attack ball and removing any trackers that he knows of. He’s not tech-savvy at all, but he knows how to read a service manual. Thankfully, he managed to acquire one from the saiyan engineers while they weren’t looking.
Now, he is holding the space pod on his shoulder as he is walking away into the wastelands with Gine, Daiko and Kakarot, who is out of his nursing pod but still asleep on Gine’s arms. The boy is around two or three years old right now.
The saiyan woman decides to break the silence. “I’ve never seen you this visibly worried about your family before…”
Bardock just looks away from the woman. “I guess you’ve been rubbing off on me…”
The woman chuckles. “Maybe… But there’s something else, isn’t there?”
The man grumbles. “You never miss anything, huh…” He then looks up to the night sky. “It was my latest mission. Me and my squad along some other saiyan squads were sent to Planet Cereal to clear it out for Freeza. It was a standard operation. Drop in, eliminate the dominant species and then report back to the Freeza Force.”
Gine slightly tilts her head in curiosity. “Then… what changed?”
Bardock still has the same unreadable expression as always. “I had just arrived when my scouter picked up a few stragglers. It was a family. A woman, a girl and a boy… But… But, for some reason, I saw you, Daiko and Kakarot. I helped them hide away with some other survivors and got them near some intact spaceships.”
The woman looks rather worried, but also confused. “But, why did you do something like that? If you were discovered…”
Bardock sighs in slight frustration, but not at her. “I know. It was a risk. I guess… I guess that I’m just tired of destroying. I think I’ve realised that killing people who can’t even put up a fight isn’t something that proves that you’re a strong warrior…” He keeps staring at the sky dotted by stars. “Maybe I just want to save something, for once. Even if it is at the end of my life.”
Daiko’s eyes widen as she realises just what her father meant. “Wait… You’re not coming? Why?!”
Bardock just plainly replies. “I can’t fit inside the attack ball with you all in there. We’re already pushing it by using a larger one and having you three go inside it. If more of them leave the planet, Freeza will definitely notice it. Besides, my high power level doesn’t help. Even if I could fit in there, the Freeza Force’s scouters would notice my power level for sure.”
The girl looks hurt, but decides to just keep it to herself. Instead, she asks another question. “What about Raditz?”
Bardock keeps looking forward, probably to hide his own internal storm. “I don’t know what will happen to him. I think Prince Vegeta just decided to ignore the order to return.”
The saiyan male puts the attack ball down on the ground and speaks again. “I removed all the trackers and microphones from this Attack Ball. The scouters inside are some very old models, so they’re not connected to the Freeza Force’s channels anymore. I did remove their trackers, just to be safe. But where you are going, you won’t really need the newer ones anyways. The average power level there is embarrassingly low.”
He places the attack ball on the floor and opens it. “Alright, get in. Once it begins flying, pay attention to the sensors. If there’s a sudden drop in activity in Planet Vegeta, then that should be enough to tell you what happened. Also, be careful about the Galactic Police. The planet I’m sending you to is very isolated, but the Galactic Police has some presence in that sector and passes near that planet from time to time.”
He continues to speak. “I used a trick I learned with Toma and overdriven the propulsion systems. You will get there in a month or so, but the engine will be busted by the time you land. These pods have stasis features, so it should feel like you just had a nap.”
Gine sounds unimpressed. “Yeah, Bardock. I know. I used to be a soldier, remember?”
Bardock just grunts. “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to see if you still knew about it. You only were one by the mandatory years and only took part in two or three conquests.”
The woman sighs. “I know. I mainly did patrols. But I still used these attack pods.”
Bardock begins talking again as he finishes setting up the attack ball. “I know I already said that, but it’s absolutely important to stay away from the Galactic Police. They usually stay away from anything related to Freeza, but they can become a problem if pushed.”
Gine chuckles. “I know, Bardock. I know.” She gives Kakarot to Daiko and then approaches Bardock. She hugs him as tears begin forming on her eyes. “Bardock. I… I know you don’t like sappy things, but… I love you, okay?”
Bardock hugs her back and, after a moment of reluctance, replies. “I love you too.”
Gine goes back to Daiko and takes Kakarot in her arms once again. Then, the girl walks up to her father. “Father. I…” She chooses to just hug her parent instead of trying to speak. Tears flow from her eyes.
After a few seconds, they separate and Gine, Kakarot and Daiko are all now inside the attack ball. The woman speaks up. “Goodbye, Bardock.”
As the door of the attack ball closes, Daiko speaks. “Goodbye, father.”
And then, Bardock lets out a sad, melancholic smile and waves his hand as the ball begins to float up before shooting away.
Bardock, looking slightly worse for wear, is rushing past all of Freeza’s soldiers and goes right up to the main spaceship, killing any pawn that gets on his way. After letting the rest of his family go, all his sadness boiled over as it became pure anger and hatred. Bardock looks absolutely livid. “Freeza! Come out here, you coward!” After a few seconds, the emperor of the galaxy gets out of the ship inside his hover pod with a rather bored expression. Bardock can feel the atmosphere change just by the mere sight of the emperor. “There is no way I can win this, but any extra second I can get for them counts…”
Freeza, still looking rather bored and somewhat annoyed, speaks up. “Alright, monkey. Normally, I’d just kill you and go my way, but since I’m in a rather good mood, I will be generous enough to let you say your last words.”
Bardock lets out a cocky smile. “For years we saiyans have been under you foot! For years we have been fighting your fights! And now, you wish to get rid of us! I won’t go down without a fight!” Bardock begins charging a Spirit Cannon on his right hand. “It won’t do a damn thing against this monster, but at least it should keep his attention focused on me.”
Freeza just lifts one of his fingers and then a small red sphere of energy appears right over it. Bardock launches his attack, but Freeza just ever so slightly smirks in pure malice. “Believe me, there is no way you can last long enough against me for it to be considered a fight, monkey. If that is all, I believe it is time to say farewell to this forsaken rock!” The small ball of energy greatly expands in size, and now it is as large as the spaceship itself.
The emperor then moves his finger forward as he begins to maniacally laugh, throwing the ball towards Bardock, Planet Vegeta and all of the Freeza Force soldiers unfortunate enough to be on the path of the Death Ball.
Bardock’s Spirit Cannon is just swallowed by the huge ball of death and destruction like it was nothing. Instead of trying anything else, Bardock simply stays still and stares as the ball approaches him. He smirks ever so slightly as he notices that the attack ball with his family has left the range of his scouter and, consequently, the range of every scouter in the area. “Now it’s your turn, Gine! You have to survive!”
The Death Ball engulfs the saiyan warrior and he screams in pain before being disintegrated mere seconds later. The destruction of Planet Vegeta followed soon after.
Freeza simply laughed maniacally during all of that, comparing the final explosion to a fireworks show.
As Gine’s attack ball shoots away into space and towards its destination, the saiyan woman and Daiko are watching the activity of Planet Vegeta through the space pod’s sensors while she holds the now awake and surprisingly calm, albeit confused, Kakarot in her arms.
As they watch the screen of the pod, out of nowhere, in in the blink of an eye, the activity in Planet Vegeta didn’t just suddenly drop.
It completely disappeared.
Save for what is obviously Freeza’s ship, there is nothing where once there was a planet.
Gine and Daiko’s eyes widen. Even Kakarot, with his limited knowledge, feels like something is up. Freeza didn’t just try to kill all saiyans by using his own soldiers or something like that.
He tried to kill all saiyans by destroying Planet Vegeta. He didn’t want to spend the time and effort of hunting down all saiyans one by one and maybe even risk some escaping.
So he blew up the planet.
Just how much power does that monster have?
Before they know it, the eyes of everyone inside the pod begin watering before breaking down into full crying as the realisation of what just happened hits them like a sucker punch to the gut.
They lost their home.
They lost their friends.
They lost Bardock.
The trio is hugging each other tight as they cry. A drowsiness befalls them as the attack ball’s stasis feature begins to kick in.
The next thing they know is darkness.