Dragon Ball Z 1. Prologue

Okay, so. I know there's millions of this kinds of fanfics where Bardock and Raditz are revived and all. What can I say? They're my fav charas. Don't read if you feel like you're sick of this kinda stories. I started this story a little less than 3 years ago, and the one you see here is a new version of that. It's proceeding rather slowly, not that that mattered. Also, this one isn't gonna include some rewritten DBZ plot only with Raditz and Bardock taking part in it, it only concentrates on the Yardrat part.

So yeah, there miiight be minor changes in the prologue later because I'm not all clear with the plot of the whole story.

I don't own DBZ. It belongs to Akira Toriyama and TOEI animation (I guess.)

**UPDATE 08/14/10! - **Alright, you no longer have to suffer from the awkward English of this story. **Lucillia** kindly cleaned up and rewrote all the chapters so far and made some edits that made the story flow better, so big thanks goes to her if you now enjoy reading the story!

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**PROLOGUE:**

The place above Hell was an exceedingly busy one where none of its inhabitants could ever find a moment's rest. The scenery there was rather unusual with its pink skies and ground that consisted of a sea of yellow clouds that surrounded the gigantic palace that dominated the center of the landscape. Hundreds upon hundreds of souls belonging to the recently departed stood in a line that stretched a long distance away from the palace, waiting to be judged by Lord Enma. Afterward, they would go to either one of two places depending on how they had behaved in life. Those who had been evil and had committed a multitude of sins of which they had not repented were doomed to Hell whereas those who had led good and virtuous lives would be rewarded with an afterlife in Heaven. In various places, the employees of the afterlife would guide the newly arrived souls towards their destinations.

"This way Ladies and Gentlemen! Stay in line, everyone will get their turn!" yelled one of the employees of the afterlife as he pointed souls towards the correct path.

It didn't matter what kind of life you led or where you had lived it, this was the place you would end up after you died whether you wanted to or not. After you were judged, you would most likely remain either in Heaven or in Hell for all eternity unless you were cleaned of all memory and reincarnated as it was nearly impossible to return to the pages of the Book of Life as the exact same person you were when you left them. It was only nearly impossible because a small and select few had achieved this feat before. Oddly enough, despite their impressive achievement, none of them were very well known amongst the denizens of the afterlife.

A tall woman with black hair, observant wolflike eyes and a thoughtful expression on her face that was slightly marred by an evil smirk who was wearing a garnet colored kimono with a gold floral pattern embroidered on it walked past the line. She ignored the scenery around her while she did so, as her attention was focused on the palace ahead and her upcoming meeting with Lord Enma.

At first glance, the woman looked like an ordinary Earthling, but that impression would be highly inaccurate. There was absolutely nothing human in her ancestry. This was borne out by the fact that she behaved as if she had always belonged in this place, unlike the recently arrived souls that surrounded her who were extremely confused and rather uncertain as to exactly where they were. In truth, she had never been one of the dead, but instead was one of the more prestigious beings of the afterlife. She was one of the gods. She was the goddess Javece.

Javece was the Guardian God of Hell, and was tasked with keeping her eye on events down there and upholding what little peace was possible in such a place. She never left Hell without having a good reason for doing so, and very rarely did she visit Lord Enma. Based on her current bearing, today's visit wasn't just a social call.

The recently arrived souls around her didn't recognize her, and became irritated when she was allowed to cut in line without any consequences after others who had tried to do so had been harshly reprimanded before being pushed back into their prior positions. Knowing that there could possibly be a riot, those tasked with herding the souls to their judgment rushed in to start smoothing ruffled feathers and bruised egos before chaos could erupt.

"Excuse me, but why are you here?" one of the blue skinned employees asked when he reached Javece after wading through a mass of agitated souls. From his tone of voice, it was obvious that he did not approve of her disruptive behavior and didn't think she deserved special treatment even if she was a goddess.

The goddess smiled at the employee rather kindly as if he were a small child, but there was a certain coldness behind her expression.

"Could you please ask Lord Enma to take a break from judging for a while? There is something I would like to speak with him about." she said in a tone of voice one would use during a call when asking a child to get one of its parents on the line.

The blue skinned man looked as if he didn't want to cooperate, but found himself unable to refuse Javece's request.

"This had better be important, because..." the employee started, hoping that his job and therefore existence wouldn't be on the line for this. He didn't finish, because Javece had turned him around and started pushing him in the direction of Lord Enma's palace.

"It's important enough. Just take me to that red ogre and be quick about it." Javece said impatiently.

"Could you please wait a moment?" the disgruntled employee asked as he freed himself from Javece's grip when they reached Enma's palace.

As soon as he was free, he stopped the line heading into Enma's throne room for judgment, shooting Javece annoyed looks the entire time he did so.

The pair soon arrived at the gigantic hall of judgment in which Lord Enma resided and stood facing an angry giant who was seated behind a massive desk in its center. The red skinned, black bearded giant who was clad in a purple uniform was the Lord Enma Judge of the Dead himself. The giant turned to the blue skinned employee who was now looking frightened rather than irritated and asked him why the souls of the dead had stopped arriving.

"Enma-sama, uh, the goddess Javece would like to speak with you." the blue skinned man said nervously. He was sweating and quaking in fear as he did so. The Lord Enma was an impressive sight when he was irritated. Lord Enma was an impressive sight period, but he was far moreso when there was something upsetting him. This had probably been why he had gotten his job, as there were very few who either had the courage or were stupid enough to challenge him.

After hearing the reason for the disruption of his routine, Enma turned his attention towards Javece. Despite being angry, he did not yell at the goddess as was expected. Javece was not the sort of person who dropped by merely to waste his time, and he understood that.

He sighed. Whatever this was, he probably wouldn't want to hear it but would have to listen nonetheless.

"Whatever it is, you had better say it quickly. Do you have any idea how bad it is when the line gets backed up like it is rapidly becoming right now?" he growled at the goddess whose arrival was an unwanted disruption to his routine rather than the small blessing it had been on prior occasions.

Javece apparently decided to ignore Lord Enma's irritation at her visit, because she smiled happily at his acknowledgment and eagerly jumped up onto the top of his desk with absolutely no difficulty despite the fact that it was several times her height. She then walked across the desk and seated herself on a book, delicately crossing her legs as she did so. The blue skinned employee attempted to follow, but found it more difficult and resorted to climbing up the side of the desk instead.

"Let's get straight to the point" she said, looking up at Lord Enma to be certain that he was actually listening. "As you know, there is a race of beings in Hell that are called Saiyans whose souls don't get completely cleansed in preparation for reincarnation as most evil souls do, but instead remain in Hell as they had been in life for all eternity so long as they keep and enforce the peace. I have been following them for a while mostly out of boredom, and have discovered the most interesting pair..."

Enma cut her off before she could continue. Apparently the begging puppy look she was trying to pull off had clued him in to what she wanted. The Judge of the Dead was pretty much immune to wide sad eyes and pleading gestures as he had seen them all of the time.

"Stop wasting my time Javece! You already know the rules. Nobody leaves your domain unless they have been cleansed of their sins and the memories that accompany them" he said, clenching a red skinned fist. He had already been having a bad day, and it was just his luck that Javece would decide to show up to waste his time for the first time ever.

Javece however, wasn't the sort who gave up easily. She tried persuasion rather than begging this time.

"I've studied those two souls extensively." she said. "One of them was born with what had to be absolutely the worst luck ever. He had never been given a chance to turn his life around, even though he actually has what it takes. The other one instead opposed Freeza – you know that evil tyrant from the living world – all alone. He was trying to save his people while he could have just run away. If that's not respectable good trait in a person then what is? I'm sure that both of the souls I have followed would walk the path of good if they were only given a chance away from certain...influences. After all, they're related to someone who has what has got to be the purest heart ever."

"You know full well that fighting and cold-bloodedness are practically cornerstones of the Saiyan culture. It was after all their skills in battle that convinced me to allow them to be Hell's main peacekeeping force. They are dangerous, and none of them should ever be released. You also know full well that in the last two million years nobody has been released from Hell without being cleansed and reincarnated. Some people who should be in hell have been wished back with those damnable Dragon Balls, but that was because they were still waiting in line for judgment at the time the wish was made." Enma said firmly, not about to budge on his position.

"Well then, it's about time you release someone now isn't it?" Javece replied almost flippantly, completely ignoring Lord Enma's worsening mood. "I'm only asking for the release of those two who I'm convinced would be a force for good, not the whole damn race."

"I'm not about to go breaking rules just because you were bored. If everyone who had good traits despite being mostly evil went to Heaven, Hell would be completely empty." Lord Enma replied.

"Please, just this once? Please, please, pretty please, pretty please with a cherry on top?" Javece pleaded, her face returning to that sad puppy expression that she'd abandoned earlier. "I've never asked you for anything before, and this is really important to me. Being the Guardian Goddess of Hell, I would know whether or not they would cause too much chaos and destruction, and they won't."

Enma frowned. He absolutely was not going to give into Javece's begging even though part of him wanted to. Before he could refuse her again however, he was interrupted by the arrival of a certain old woman who had floated into a position between him and Javece. Both he and the goddess turned their attention toward the black clad crone whose purple hair was topped with a conical black witch's hat. The crone who was seated in her customary position atop a floating crystal ball couldn't have interrupted the conversation any better if she'd popped out of a birthday cake stark naked.

"I apologize for my disrespectful behavior Lord Enma, but the current situation has compelled me to come and ask that you acquiesce to Javece's request." the crone said, before either party could start yelling at her.

Enma stared down at the woman in confusion. While demanding and somewhat rude at times, the old woman usually didn't interrupt his conversations, and it was also highly unusual for her to side with anyone against him as she was in his realm by his leave.

"Would you care to explain the reasoning behind your opinion Uranai Baba?" Enma asked in the rather controlled tone of voice a person uses at times when they are barely keeping themselves from exploding.

Uranai Baba cleared her throat and sat straighter on her crystal ball before explaining.

"I was gazing into the depths of my crystal ball recently and saw that there was a great danger which will threaten the whole of the universe, and that it will be arriving in the near future." she said.

"Great. Something else I don't need. This day just keeps getting better and better." Enma grumbled sarcastically.

"At the moment, the threat isn't very dangerous, but it shall soon gain strength and when it is at its strongest not even Kaioshin himself will be able to stop it. Son Goku is at this very moment heading towards this threat's home planet. At the moment, Goku is stronger than Freeza himself, but he will not be able to defeat this threat on his own. If you send the two Saiyans that Javece was talking about to aid him now, we won't have to bother the Kaios or the Kaioshin with this problem later." the crone continued.

Javece listened to the All Seeing Crone's explanation with interest. This had been just what she needed to win her argument. Enma would be forced to act when it came to a universe wide threat because the Living World was partially his responsibility.

"Son Goku you say?" Lord Enma said, brightening slightly. He'd come to like that particular brain damaged Saiyan during the short time he knew him. Rather than go straight to Heaven as was his right, Goku had risked an eternity in Hell to traverse the Snake Road in order to get training to defeat the Saiyans who were coming to harm those he had sworn to protect on his adopted homeworld.

"Well then, who were these Saiyans you were talking about then Javece?" Enma asked, turning to the goddess who was perched on one of his ledgers.

"Their names are Bardock and Raditz." Javece said calmly, barely suppressing her glee at her victory in case it caused Lord Enma to change his mind.

Enma flipped through one of the books on his desk for a few moments until he found what was apparently the entry he'd been looking for.

"Father and son, eh. And not only that, but they're Son Goku's father and older brother." Enma said after reading the entry.

"Well then, we have the perfect team right there, don't we?" Javece said, grinning widely.

Enma paused. For some strange reason this situation seemed just a little too good to be true. That many coincidences tended to add up to conspiracy. He couldn't think of what sort or why for the life of him though, and on the other hand he couldn't think of a way to deny Javece's request especially if the fate of the universe could be at stake if he did so.

"Fine then," he sighed, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the shadowed ceiling as if to ask a higher deity what he had done to deserve this.

"Javice, I will allow you to return Bardock and Raditz to the world of the living. But, it will only be for a week. They should be able to help Goku destroy this great danger in that amount of time. If they fail at their mission, or if they start unnecessarily destroying things and killing innocent people, they will return to Hell the instant the week is up. However, if they manage to behave themselves and complete this mission I will allow them to continue to live as you have requested." Enma said.

Javece jumped up happily and did a little victory dance.

"Thank you Lord Enma!" she said.

"Since I'm always busy, you will have to be the one to keep an eye on them. I don't want those two to just pretend to be all good and nice, so I must require that you do not appear before them or tell them of their mission until after the seven days are up." Enma said, causing Javece's little victory dance to halt.

"I will do as you ask. Thank you again Lord Enma. I assure you that those two are worth all the trouble." Javece said, bowing.

"You're welcome. Now get out of here, I have work to do!" Enma said, shooing Javece off his desk.

Javece laughed as she turned to leave, bidding farewell to Uranai Baba before leaping from Lord Enma's desk with a catlike grace and landing silently on her feet, quite unlike Enma's blue skinned employee who had landed on his ass with a loud thud before he recovered and raced out ahead of her in order to get the line restarted since her business with Lord Enma was concluded.

Javece had always found Enma's realm entertaining. To her, was like one big comedy with Lord Enma playing the straight man in the center of it all. The office employees were always rushing about with a trail of paperwork flying behind them, and the souls of the recently departed were always either looking completely lost or gaping like tourists who were seeing skyscrapers for the first time. Today however, Javece found herself unable to stay and watch the chaos for a while since she herself was going to be busy and needed to return to hell ASAP. As she rather reluctantly departed, she consoled herself with the thought that she was soon going to be having the most amusing week she'd had in a long, long while.

As soon as she was outside of the hall of judgment, she broke into a less than dignified run in order to leave Enma's palace more quickly. The moment she was outside and atop the yellow clouds that marked the lower border of Enma's territory she dove beneath them and into the bleak land that was her home and domain, Hell.


	2. Meanwhile in Hell

**UPDATE 08/14/10! - **Alright, you no longer have to suffer from the awkward English of this story. **Lucillia** kindly cleaned up and rewrote all the chapters so far and made some edits that made the story flow better, so big thanks goes to her if you now enjoy reading the fan fic!**  
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**CHAPTER 1: Meanwhile In Hell**

Hell was peaceful at the moment...peaceful, boring, and depressing. Other than Bardock, there weren't any souls with full forms in the area, just a few wisps of ectoplasm that were slowly pulling themselves together into one. The wisps didn't seem to realize how futile their tasks were, since their memories would be wiped and their souls cleansed for reincarnation before they were finished. The wisps who were so inclined could rant and rave about their fate until their rage was spent, but eventually their personalities would disappear and they would be born again as someone else, someone who had no idea of who they were and what they had done before.

He watched idly as yet another soul decided to conquer all that it surveyed. Every soul that was evil enough and thought itself powerful enough would try this at least once while they were here. He didn't bother watching the new regime's rapid rise and meteoric fall though, as he had seen it happen enough times before in the 24 years he'd been here.

He briefly shook his head in amusement at the antics of the new arrivals. It was always the same. When a new soul arrived, it would either be reincarnated or it would try to go on a rampage and end up being destroyed by either himself or another Saiyan. He himself was tired of the routine, and had been so since his first year here. Despite, or perhaps in spite of his opinions and wishes, it continued relatively unchanged however.

There had been a time in the beginning when he had been happy that Lord Enma had allowed him and his fellow Saiyans to keep their former bodies and memories. He had seen it as a chance to continue his "life" in Hell where he and his comrades could fight any trouble making new arrivals. Back then, he couldn't envision a better afterlife.

Hell however wasn't called Hell for nothing. All too soon, everyone realized that it wasn't going to be the fun place they thought it would be.

First, there was the job, or rather the lack of work to do. Almost all of the souls that arrived were so weak that any fights with them were pretty much over the instant they began. Before virtually all of the stronger souls could form a body of their own, they were either reincarnated, or pounced on by a pack of Saiyans who were desperate for a fight. Once in a blue moon, there would be a report of a soul that had actually managed to defeat one of the weaker Saiyans.

Then, there was the environment. It was as if this place had been specifically designed to grate on his nerves. The temperature was neither too hot or too cold, but instead of being comfortable...it was something else, something that slowly wore you down for some strange reason. The air was still, flat, and stale. The landscape itself was exceedingly desolate, and looked virtually the same in every direction. Just about everything here was a bleak gray, and the few plants there were to break up the monotony were rather unpleasant to look at. The sky above was an endless, unchanging sea of clouds that were probably the only depressing shade of yellow in existence. Yellow was supposed to be a bright cheerful color, not this dingy animal piss in dirty snow shade.

There were times when he wanted to fall into despair over how far he and his people had fallen in this place, but his pride wouldn't allow it. They would be here for all eternity, and he and they would just have to adapt. Breaking down over such minor inconveniences as the ones he was currently suffering was absolutely pointless as neither he nor they would ever be going away.

He knew that he and his kind had only brought this on themselves, they'd been told that enough times. But what else could anyone do when they were raised in the sort of environment they had been? If you started acting like some soft pitiful weakling, you would just be culled. He'd seen what happened to Saiyan children who "went native" during planet clearing missions. He himself had lost a younger cousin when it was discovered that she had allowed herself to be adopted like some sort of pet by a family on the world she was supposed to be clearing. The Saiyan culture was a bloodthirsty one, and wouldn't allow for anything else, especially when Freeza had pretty much been in control.

He pulled himself out of his musing, walked up to the latest raging newcomer, and almost negligently dispatched it with a single Ki attack. He was almost immediately enveloped in a cloud of dust and smoke as a result. When the dust cloud cleared, he briefly considered just staying right here for the rest of eternity. What was the point in leaving? This spot was pretty much the same as everywhere else.

Eventually, he decided to head back to the rest of his kind. There wasn't really anywhere else to go, and with the other Saiyans around his misery would have company. After using a double peaked mountain he'd mentally marked as a landmark earlier to reorient himself, he rose into the air and shot off like a rocket towards a distant mountain range to his left. He broke the sound barrier faster than you could say "cat" and hit Mach 4 a few seconds later, but it still took more than ten minutes to cross the mountains and reach a vast and exceedingly bleak valley on the other side.

From this height, it almost looked as if the valley was empty, but someone with good eyesight would be able to make out several scatterings of small black dots here and there across the valley floor. If one got closer, the dots revealed themselves to be people, people with black hair that was somewhat similar to Bardock's and furry brown tails similar to the one Bardock possessed.

The group of Saiyans had thinned out considerably since their arrival. Those that were directionally challenged tended to depend on their Scouters for navigation, and had gotten lost when their Scouters had eventually broken down. Since there weren't any replacement Scouters in Hell...

Bardock's own Scouter had broken down long ago, but he'd never been stupid enough to entirely depend on it for navigational purposes. Unlike the poor Saiyans who were probably going to spend years, decades, centuries, millennia, eons, or perhaps even all eternity trying to find the Saiyan encampment again, Bardock was able to almost effortlessly navigate his way across the bleak and desolate landscape when he wanted to be alone, and could always find his way back when he wanted company.

After coming to a stop, he landed softly about thirty meters away from the largest group of Saiyans. Some of the guys there were sparring, while others lay listlessly on the ground half dead from boredom. Rather than watch the sparring sessions, or engage in lacklustre conversation with one of the others who were half asleep, he sought out the four Saiyans that were closest to his heart, his teammates.

Unlike the other Saiyans in the group, his teammates hadn't died during Vegeta's destruction. They had died shortly before, when they had been murdered by Freeza's men during what was supposed to be a relatively easy assignment.

Just thinking Freeza's name made Bardock angry. Even if his younger son managed to defeat Freeza and avenge them, the fact remained that he himself had failed to defeat the monster and prevent Vegeta's destruction in the first place. The fact that the jackasses who died that day had blindly trusted their "ally" and hadn't tried to save themselves when he warned them didn't improve his mood either. If they had all banded together, they could've...they could've...Well, at the very least, they all would have gone out fighting instead of while sleeping, eating, drinking, or on the can.

Toma eventually noticed he was there, and called out to get his attention. After waving back to Toma to indicate that he heard him, he headed over to join him and the others.

"Where did you go this time?" Seripa asked idly, not really interested in the answer. "I honestly don't understand why your trips take forever like they do. It's not like there's anything to do outside the valley is there?"

Seripa was right. There wasn't really anything to do outside of the valley, and nothing was pretty much what Bardock had done.

"I just wandered a bit, then I took out another soul." he replied tonelessly, before turning to observe the other Saiyans that surrounded his team on the off chance that one of them might be doing something interesting since his teammates weren't.

He found himself tuning everyone out when his gaze fell on Nappa. Nappa was the newest arrival, and had been one of the few to survive their homeworld's destruction. It was said that it had been Prince Vegeta himself who had killed the bald behemoth. Bardock however didn't pity him for his rather ironic death - and wouldn't have if he ever pitied anyone - since he had brought it upon himself by continuing to serve Freiza, and teaching the bratty princeling they way he did. If he didn't want Prince Vegeta killing him, he should have instilled a sense of loyalty towards him in the brat. Looking at the man's ugly face brought instead a rising sense of disgust. How the hell could an elite be that...stupid?

His low opinion of Nappa was nothing compared to the one he held for his older son Raditz. While seeing the boy's - now man's - face didn't make him physically ill, the brat managed to piss him off every time he opened his mouth. If the paternity test hadn't come back positive he would have been willing to swear that that idiot wasn't his.

Fortunately for his mood, Raditz wasn't anywhere nearby. That distinctive hair of his that he'd inherited from his mother was rather easy to spot, even from more than fifty meters away.

Like Nappa, Raditz had been one of the few to survive Vegeta's destruction however, he had died a full year earlier than Nappa did. Unlike Nappa who had somewhat wisely preferred to remain mostly quiet about the cause of his demise, Raditz had started running around telling everyone how his "Asshole of a baby brother" had caused his death immediately after he arrived.

Bardock wasn't too surprised by this, since Raditz had always been a weak loser, and he was pretty much ashamed to call that moron his son. Unfortunately for him, far too many people were well aware of the fact that Raditz was his for him to be able to believably deny that he was.

Raditz was the sort of moron who tended to think everything he was doing was right, even when he was making a fucking mess of things. To make matters worse, that cocky loser had caused the death of the one person that his visions had told him was going to avenge their race. The only thing that had kept him from completely destroying his elder son instead of just beating the ever loving shit out of him was that Raditz had pointed out that Kakarot was most likely going to be brought back to life by a set of magical wishing orbs from Earth.

Raditz's part in Kakarot's apparently temporary demise wasn't the only thing that upset him about the boy...no, man. There was also the fact that he was completely unrepentant in his role as his brother's executioner, and the fact that the moron had rather blindly followed Freeza for the nearly quarter century since Vegeta's destruction.

There had been a time when he would have agreed with Raditz's views on Goku's having gone native and interbred with the local population rather than completing his mission, but that time was long past. Vegeta was gone, as was virtually all of the Saiyan race and those few that were left were unfortunately all male. There was no home or people for Kakarot to be loyal to, much less return to, and he sure as hell didn't want his youngest child serving the monster that had destroyed their home and people as Raditz had. The knowledge that he had surviving descendants comforted him as well.

The fact that Raditz had been too dense to realize that some stupid asteroid couldn't possibly have destroyed their race since it would have been blown to bits long before it reached Vegeta, and hadn't attempted to suss out the truth for more than twenty years severely irked him as well.

Suffice to say, their reunion - after he finally recognized his greatly changed son because of the hair - had not been a joyous one. It had actually started with him punching the brat in the gut and strangling him before he started yelling at him for serving Freeza and killing his own brother when there were less than a handful of Saiyans left in the living world.

He kept the main reason of his ire to himself, because if he had mentioned his visions everyone would think him to be insane. After all, how could someone who was defeated by a weakling like Raditz possibly defeat Freeza?

Looking up once more at the piss colored sky, he found himself once again wishing he could watch the living world. Mainly, he wanted to watch his son beat the shit out of Freeza, but hey, what Saiyan wouldn't.

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While Bardock's mind was wandering, Raditz was grumpily sitting in an isolated corner of the valley as he usually did alone in his own thoughts. There really wasn't anything else for him to do here. He rarely ever got to fight. Very few Saiyans ever saw him as a good sparring partner, and the few who did saw him as an "easy win". Since he wasn't worth sparring with, he wasn't considered worth talking to. Even here, some elements of the Saiyan culture and ranking system remained, and even here he was viewed as lowly third-rate, Third Class scum.

It had been at least a year since he died, but that day still severely upset him. His father's anger had been yet another unwelcome surprise heaped on top of the already craptacular day he'd had. Usually his father had little to do with him, since he had been constantly busy with his own missions and such. Having the man attack him and berate him for every last one of his failures and some things he was pretty sure weren't failures had been rather unpleasant to say the least.

Learning that he'd been working for the same bastard who had destroyed his home, his people, and his only chance at a mate before he was old enough for one had been like a kick to the balls. It was rare that he ever regretted any of his actions, but...what else could he have done? Even Prince Vegeta and Nappa combined couldn't defeat that monster. Had they opposed him they would have died. Even if Kakarot had joined them, it wouldn't have made a difference.

"Kakarot." he growled as he often did these days, clenching his fists.

Even now, thinking about that traitorous asshole pissed him off. He had gone all the way to some backwater called Earth to retrieve his brother, and instead had found himself facing a stubborn fool who had quite happily turned his back on his people and his family.

He had been willing to give Kakarot another chance, several other chances in fact, had anyone else found him, Kakarot would have been killed on the spot. He had been willing to overlook the incomplete mission, and the removal of his tail if only he would join him and take his proper place at his side, with his people. Instead, the fool had proved himself irredeemable when he willingly sacrificed himself to protect those soft, weak, Earth creatures.

If he'd known what that little jaunt to Earth would have cost him, he never would have gone in the first place. If he'd just forgotten about his brother like he had for more than twenty years, if he'd just listened to his Scouter's warning rather than believing it to be broken, he wouldn't be rotting away down here, wallowing in his misery.

How the hell could he have underestimated his weakling brother and that brat so severely?

It had been when he'd pointed out that Kakarot was dying with him that the Namekian had spilled the secret about some mystical "Dragon Balls" that granted any wish you could desire, and that Kakaraot's friends would use them to bring him back. The Namekian who was far less "gentle" than his brain damaged brother had obviously been hoping to get the last laugh, but it was he who had gotten it instead. He'd died laughing after he had informed the stunned Namekian of his much stronger companions and how it would be he who would be brought back by these magical devices instead. He died believing that this death would be temporary, and continued to believe it until the day Nappa had shown up.

Considering how things had turned out, that last laugh probably made him look even more stupid.

After being completely humiliated by Lord Enma and unceremoniously dumped into Hell upon his demise, he had soon found the Saiyan encampment and encountered his father.

Seeing Saiyans again - some of whom he recognized from the days of his childhood - and joining them had been rather enjoyable at first. He finally had fellow Third Class warriors to talk to. It had been rather lonely when it was just him and the two "Elites" since being of a lower rank made him more of a servant in their eyes. He had always been made to feel like a fifth wheel at best with them.

Meeting his father again hadn't been nearly as enjoyable. His father was the same grumpy, ill tempered person he remembered. He respected the man greatly, but his father had never returned that respect. He was pretty much used to it though, very few of his people had respected him.

He had been happy to see his father again, right up until the man had recognized him. There had been a few peaceful moments of conversation, until he rather stupidly mentioned his asshole brother. His father's attitude did a complete 180 then and there, and he suddenly started beating the crap out of him, yelling at him the entire time and calling him several kinds of idiot. He wouldn't even listen when he tried to tell him that Kakarot was a traitor.

The beating got even worse when he brought up his somewhat loyal service to Freeza until his demise. All of the sympathetic glances he had been getting from bystanders swiftly vanished. Freeza was apparently almost universally disliked by the Saiyans, even though he could have sworn that wasn't the case when the planet Vegeta was still around. It was at that point that he learned the truth about his homeworld's fate, and that was almost harder to take than his own demise.

His father had calmed down a bit only after he had mentioned the "Dragon Balls" and how Kakarot's pitiful Earthling friends planned on using them to bring him back to life. He didn't know what his father found so comforting in that bit of information. Even after he had told his father that Nappa and Vegeta were going to gather the magic balls before the humans got a chance to and use them and bring him back instead, his father clung to the belief that his younger son was going to be resurrected, and told him flat out that Nappa and Vegeta would never waste a wish on him.

Raditz growled as he lay back on the rock upon which he had been sitting. He had rather stupidly believed that his former companions would wish him back right up until Nappa had showed up and started griping at him about how Prince Vegeta had killed him. He had doubted Nappa's story at first, unable to believe that their prince could kill a fellow Saiyan without a second thought especially when there were so few left, but he eventually found himself believing him. Vegeta had practically been raised by Freeza after all.

On the day Nappa showed up, he also learned that Kakarot was once again alive and well, and now apparently much stronger. While Nappa didn't outright admit it, he had gotten the impression that Kakarot had somehow beaten the crap out of him. The mystery of how anyone could have gained that much strength in one year, bothered him to no end. He himself would never dare to challenge Nappa, since the end result would be him ending up as a red smear on a distant rock. Kakarot had been even weaker than him when they met a year ago, and yet he had somehow managed to defeat Nappa. Perhaps he'd used those magical wishing balls. It wouldn't surprise him. A creature who lacked pride the way Kakarot did would do something that underhanded.

Based on the fact that Vegeta had killed the only other _decent_ Saiyan in existence when he ceased being useful to him, it was a foregone conclusion that the Prince wouldn't bother to waste a wish on him. He was going to be stuck down here, and that stung. Father had been right when he'd said that it would be Kakarot who'd be returning, and he'd been right when he had called him an idiot for even hoping.

Raditz growled as he sat back up. What was it that had made Kakarot so special in his father's eyes? Everyone knew that the asshole had been born with an extremely low power level which made him garbage even to those who were considered scum. His father never even knew the brat, since he had died shortly after he was born. They had never met, never spoken to each-other, and yet here his father was constantly berating him for killing him. If it was him, he wouldn't have given a damn.

One thing he had sworn to himself was that if he ever saw Kakarot again, either here or if by some miracle Vegeta got lonely enough to wish for his return, he would make sure his brother paid for what he did.

Deciding that his dark thoughts were counterproductive as they served to further depress him, he stood up and walked off to find something, anything, to distract him.

* * *

High up in the mountains, a woman was steadily and silently climbing ever upward. Her reason for being there was that she was searching for a high point that overlooked the entirety of the valley below, in order to see all of the Saiyans within and find a particular target, or pair of targets rather. For someone with normal eyesight, this would be an exercise in futility. However, this woman's eyes were far from normal.

After a couple of minutes of searching from her distant perch, the woman finally spotted her targets. The two were pretty far away from each-other, but that wouldn't be a problem. Actually, it might be beneficial since both of her targets may believe what was soon going to happen to them was merely an odd coincidence, rather than that they were targeted specifically. Though, there was also the strong possibility that they would regard their distance as proof that they had been specifically targeted.

The Goddess Javece raised her arms until they were just slightly higher than her shoulders in preparation for her coming task. Her ever-present smirk swiftly vanished, and was replaced by a look of intense concentration.

Faster than any human eye could see, the goddess' arms drew a circle in the air before returning to her sides. After this was done, it appeared as if nothing had happened other than a slight breeze that had fluttered the skirt of the goddess' kimono. But, if one were to look closely, they would find that two people were missing from the valley below.

Everything had gone as planned so far, but the week had only just begun.


	3. A Strange Place

**UPDATE 08/14/10! - **Alright, you no longer have to suffer from the awkward English of this story. **Lucillia** kindly cleaned up and rewrote all the chapters so far and made some edits that made the story flow better, so big thanks goes to her if you now enjoy reading the story!

* * *

**CHAPTER 2: A Strange Place**

Bardock stood and blinked rather stupidly for a moment. The look of surprise on his face would have been quite comical had there been anyone around to see it. It was quite understandable in this situation, considering the fact that he wasn't standing in the middle of a large group of Saiyans, as he had been only moments before.

The ever-present view of an extremely dismal and foreboding mountain range had abruptly vanished and been replaced by a hilly countryside that was covered in brightly colored vegetation. Behind him was what looked to be an actual forest. The sky above however was still yellow, but it was a more cheerful yellow that was dotted with fluffy white clouds that seemed to chase each-other across it while carefully avoiding the sun. It was the very antithesis of the sky he had looked up at day and night for more than twenty years.

Wait a minute. _The sun? _

Bardock carefully shaded his eyes with his right hand and looked up. Yep, that was a sun. It had to be, because as far as he knew nobody could produce a Ki attack that was anywhere near as bright. The fact that it was there in itself was strange, because since his arrival in Hell nearly a quarter of a century ago he had never seen a sun, or any stars either for that matter. Where could it have come from? From what he had gathered, suns and stars existed only in the living world.

"What the fuck just happened?" he asked himself, completely confused, somewhat frustrated, and just a little frightened.

What kind of trick was this? Was this someone's idea of a sick joke? Was it a new torment that some deity was experimenting with?

After the shock started to wear off, his brain kicked in and started searching for answers. As he more calmly took in his surroundings, he noticed yet another oddity. He felt weird, different than he had felt moments earlier when he was joking around with Toma and Panbukin. He felt heavier, but oddly enough, not in a bad way. Maybe it was related to the fact that his lungs had suddenly decided to start working despite being offline for more than two decades. He felt warmer as well for some strange reason. He was pretty sure he had felt like this before, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember when.

After pushing the mystery of the odd sensations to the back of his mind, he studied his surroundings with more care and attention to detail. He was becoming rather certain that this place wasn't hell. He didn't know what it was or how he could have gotten here however.

Perhaps this place was a dream. Someone could have gotten a cheap shot in and knocked him out before he even realized it, and at this very moment he could be laying unconscious in the middle of a crowd of laughing Saiyans. It wasn't all that unlikely, even if something about this place didn't feel like a dream.

* * *

Some distance away, a rather stunned Raditz found himself standing in the middle of a rather prickly bush. Moments earlier, he'd been sulking, and staring at the barren ground which suddenly transformed itself into something far more hospitable looking, with a carpet of grass that swayed gently in the light breeze that had appeared out of nowhere. Taking stock of the situation, he found that he himself felt better somehow. Perhaps it was because of the change of scenery.

Had Vegeta actually wished him back, or was this some deity's idea of a sick joke? Was this scene going to abruptly vanish before he found himself in an even more horrendous place than the Hell he had been inhabiting for the last year or so? He wouldn't put it past Lord Enma to try messing with him like that for knocking his inkwell over and spilling its contents on his paperwork when he attempted to attack him before he was thrown into Hell, considering how pissed the creature had been at the time. The Judge of the Dead didn't like him, but then again very few people liked him. Not that he cared or anything.

After readjusting the Scouter that had nearly fallen off while he was gaping at the scenery in shock, Raditz disentangled himself from the mass of twigs and leaves in which he had been caught. There was a good amount of bramble caught in his hair when he was finally free, and removing it later was going to take a while. It was during times like these that he wished that he had inherited his father's hair like the asshole Kakarot had.

From all the animal sounds, he could tell he wasn't in hell anymore. But, where the heck was he, and how had he been transported to this place so swiftly that he hadn't even noticed until the trip was over?

After traveling a little ways, he noticed that while this place was abundantly teeming with life, it was rather void of people and other signs of civilization. Based on the fact that there was a sun shining in the sky, he was assuming that he was on some sort of planet - as for which planet, he didn't have a clue - and any planet that could support life almost invariably supported intelligent life.

As he continued on his way, he wondered whether or not he should be happy or worried about where he was. If he died again while he was dead, he would cease to exist. Considering the abrupt manner in which he was brought here, there was a rather strong possibility that he had been brought here for just that purpose. Any one of those creatures he was hearing could be a being that was stronger than him, and could be waiting for just the right moment to attack.

Before his thoughts could spiral out of control into deep paranoia however, something else occurred to him as well. It was just possible that he had been wished back, and that he could actually be amongst the living, or at the very least be of the living-dead. If he was indeed in the living world, there was a chance that he would be able to use his Scouter to seek out intelligent life. If there was intelligent life, they might be advanced enough to build spaceships, and if they were, he would bully them into building one for him. As soon as he got one, he would fulfill his promise to himself and go to Earth where he would get his revenge on Kakarot and put his upstart brother in his place.

He knew that Kakarot was stronger than Nappa - as hard as that was to imagine - but, true to form, he was blinded by his own ego as well as his strong desire for revenge. He told himself that he would somehow find a way, and that he would be good enough to defeat the asshole when the time came. He had nothing else to do anyways, because he didn't plan on taking orders from Vegeta or Freeza even if one of them had wished him back, his home was long gone, and all of the other Saiyans were in Hell.

After pressing a button on his Scouter, the device immediately started transmitting data to the small green readout screen that was in front of his left eye. After running a search for the strongest power levels on the planet, it gave a small beep to indicate that it had finished the task set before it. The number on the screen caused him to yelp in surprise, and almost made him fall backwards onto his ass. It was over TEN thousand. He blinked a few times, and looked again to make sure he hadn't misread the information. He hadn't.

What the hell was going on? Only Freeza's men had numbers that high or higher. His scouter had to be broken. He was sure that he'd be able to immediately recognize any planet in the galaxy with inhabitants that strong, because either the inhabitants would be working for Freeza and therefore would be showing anyone who would stand still long enough or could be made to stand still long enough pictures of "Back Home" during their downtime, or it would only be spoken of in the past tense as in "Freeza himself destroyed..."

That thought didn't prevent a cold sweat from breaking out however. The last time he'd gone the "stupid Scouter must be broken" route, he had ended up having the shit kicked out of him by a toddler before dying. He would have to be wary. That power level was nearly ten times his own.

He somehow managed to push back his fear and nervousness and start moving forward. He needed to get a clear idea of what the possessor of this phenomenal power level was like, and how to best deal with it. Besides, a Saiyan didn't run away like a frightened dog with its tail between its legs no matter how strong the being he or she faced was.

According to his scouter, the power source was fifty meters to the East, and moving slowly. He could catch up with it pretty quickly if he wanted to, but had decided to remain cautious and not catch the creature's attention if he didn't need to. So, instead of flying over and into the creature's sensory range - considering the fact that there were beings who could sense people without Scouters - he was doing his best to move silently through the underbrush of the forest he was in, occasionally getting his hair caught in tree branches and bracken along the way.

After what was about about fifteen minutes, but felt like an eternity, the creature was less than ten meters away, and if he rounded the next tree he should be able to catch a glimpse of it.

It was quite possible that the creature hadn't yet noticed him despite his breathing which sounded loud even to him, but then again it was possible that it was only pretending not to have noticed him in order to lure him into a false sense of security. There was a strong possibility that the instant he rounded that tree, the creature would decide to pounce and rend him limb from limb. When it came to beings that powerful, you could never be too sure.

Eventually, he found the courage to round the final tree before the creature moved too far away. What he saw when he did so was completely unexpected. Instead of some freaky alien, he saw another Saiyan, an easily recognizable Saiyan with a head of hair that was possessed by only two people that he knew, his father, and the asshole. It wasn't the asshole however.

"Dad!" he yelled in shock, causing his father to whirl around in surprise. Once he did so, his father gave him the same stunned look that he was undoubtedly giving the older man.

Why was his father here? Had a sizable portion of the population of Hell been transported here, or was it just him and his father?

Considering the fact that there were no other power levels approaching that of his father here according to his scouter, the latter was more likely.

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to this. His first instinct was telling him to run before his father decided to give him another beating. He wasn't anywhere near the top of his father's list of favorite people to be around - in fact, he was somewhere in the top five on his father's shit list - but then again his father had pretty much avoided him for the last year after he was done hitting him.

Instead of doing something remotely intelligent looking, he found himself blurting out the first question that came to mind.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bardock asked, at the exact same time as his son.

Normally he wouldn't be happy to see his son and would promptly express his displeasure, but with all of the recent strangeness a bit of familiarity was almost welcome. There was also the question of what the hell Raditz was doing here. Were there other Saiyans here as well? Were his teammates wandering around searching for him at this very moment?

From the amount of time it had taken Raditz to find him and the way it looked like he had come on foot considering all of the debris caught in the man's hair, he assumed that the starting point for his journey hadn't been too far from his own. From the lack of Saiyans trampling through the forest calling for him or each-other, it was reasonable to assume that it was only Raditz and himself that had been brought here. Why though? Why them out of several million Saiyans?

He was beginning to think that this wasn't just some bizarre coincidence, and from the look on Raditz's face, he could tell that the other man had even less of an idea as to why they were here and would be unable to answer any of his father's questions.

"Where am I, and how did I get here?" Raditz asked him, as if he thought that he would have a better idea of what was going on.

He swiftly squashed the sudden impulse he had to say "Well, you see son, your mother and I got drunk and..." Instead, he gathered himself and put up his "I'm completely in control of the situation." facade. He pretended to study their surroundings in an effort to buy more time, hoping that a being would pop out from behind a tree or something and give them a detailed explanation for why they were here and what they were supposed to be doing other than standing around like a pair of idiots like in those stupid adventure stories he used to read between missions when he was a kid. No such luck. The only other intelligent life - if it could even be called that - in the immediate vicinity was his increasingly impatient son.

"Listen brat, I don't know jack shit about what you're doing here. What makes you think I would when I don't even know what the hell I'm doing here myself. All I do know is that we aren't in Hell. Instead of staring at me like a total fucking moron, you could be doing something useful like searching for the bastard that's behind this." He said after he was pretty certain that a mysterious being wasn't going to pop up out of nowhere and start handing out answers.

Raditz, who seemed to be content with gaping like a fish while staring at the top of his head for some strange reason, made no effort to move.

"Y-Your halo." Raditz eventually stammered, pointing at the spot that the glowing circle that marked his status as one of the deceased rested.

"Wow, you finally noticed. And it's only been there for more than two decades." he said sarcastically, almost unable to believe the new level of stupidity to which his elder son had just sunk.

"That's not what I meant!" Raditz yelled angrily, pointing at the spot where his halo rested. "Your halo is gone!"

After Raditz's surprising statement, he shifted his glance upward. The edge of the ever-present ring of light that he would sometimes catch a glimpse of was missing. He reached up and patted the spot where it rested. It's semi-solid presence that was marked by an odd difference in the density of the air in that area was missing as well.

He couldn't mask the expression of surprise that came when the realization of what this meant finally hit him. The halo was gone. The odd feeling he was trying to catalogue earlier was...

He reached up and pressed two fingers against the carotid artery in his neck.

He had a pulse.

He was alive.

He smirked. It was probably too early for celebrating considering the odd situation he was in, but he couldn't suppress the sudden feeling of elation. He was alive! He was outside Hell and somewhere in the living world, and he was ALIVE!

Hopefully, his new status wouldn't be too temporary. This time around, he wanted to know exactly what old age felt like despite the fact that it was considered shameful for a Saiyan to die from such a condition.

Looking over at his son, he noticed something he'd previously overlooked in his confusion over seeing his wayward offspring in this strange place. The brat's halo was gone as well. Despite his current feelings for the brat, he couldn't help but smile. The fact that the brat was alive too wasn't enough to dampen his good mood. How could he not be happy when he was alive, when he had been given a second chance? He knew that he shouldn't be getting his hopes up, but...

"What about you then?" he said, smirking as he pointed to she spot where Raditz's own halo used to rest.

"Wh-what the...?" Raditz said - his eyes wide with shock - after he reached up and discovered his own halo to be missing as well. While it was possible that Raditz's mass of hair could have swallowed the halo - considering the fact that there were many who were willing to swear that the man's hair was carnivorous and that someone had actually seen it eat a soul once - he didn't think so.

Raditz got over his initial shock about as quickly as he did, and started looking exultantly vengeful for some strange reason. He clenched his hand into a fist and stared at it joyfully and intently, making him wonder if his son had gone insane, or even more insane rather.

"Ha...hahaha..." Raditz laughed madly. "So I really do get another chance."

The brat then blew up a large number of trees with a Ki blast and proudly stared at the crater he'd just made. He watched his son's antics in bemusement. He never could understand that boy. He himself was happy to be alive, but that didn't mean he was about to start acting like a lunatic and go destroying everything in sight.

"Now I really can go find Kakarot and blast the shit out of him like I should have done in the first place." Raditz said staring off into the distance of a fantasy land of his own making, and not realizing that he'd just burned up what little good will his father had towards him thanks to his new lease on life.

"Go ahead." he said. "I can't wait to see him turn you into paste. Be sure to tell everyone in Hell I said Hi."

"You don't believe I could do it?" Raditz asked.

"Nope. You're free to try, and free to get turned into hamburger though. It's your funeral." he replied, getting ready to ward off the headache that invariably resulted when Raditz got riled up. The boy could go on for days. One time, when he'd been stuck with him in his quarters, he'd gone on a mission and when he returned Raditz had still been yelling about something or other.

"Well, I'll just have to prove you wrong! I'm nowhere near as weak as you think I am." Raditz said defiantly, trying to make himself look and sound more threatening than he actually was.

"You're not?" he asked incredulously. If he wasn't as weak as he appeared, what the hell was he doing being constantly pounded on by everyone and their grandmother?

"Okay then, why don't you show me these incredible powers of yours?" he said, sneering at Raditz both in disappointment in his son and amusement at his antics.

"Well, come on then." he said when Raditz failed to move.

As expected, Raditz scowled, unclenched his fists, and turned his face away in a submissive manner, giving up on their "fight".

It had been just as he thought. Raditz was and had always been all talk.

* * *

Raditz was irked by the fact that he had to give up before the fight even started, but his father was far more powerful than him. What else could he do? As much as he wanted to prove that he wasn't a weakling, he knew he couldn't take his father head on in a fight. His father would have beaten the shit out of him if he even tried. He had only just returned to life, and he didn't want his return to be over so quickly.

He tamped his anger down, and did his best to forget the conversation and the shame that went along with it.

"So, what are we going to do now?" he asked, almost desperately changing the subject.

"I don't know about _us._ But, I'm going to be looking for signs of civilization." his father replied, sneering down at him contemptuously, which was a rather impressive feat since he was taller than the man, having taken after his maternal grandfather when it came to his height.

His father then held out his hand as if demanding he hand over some object, the way he had when he'd brought some contraband items home when he was six.

"Give me the Scouter." his father said impatiently after he'd been holding his hand out for a while.

Though he was rather reluctant to do so, he promptly gave his father the precious Scouter. He held no illusions that the man wouldn't just beat the shit out of him and take it if he tried to keep it. Being the stronger of the two, his father was naturally the leader, and all of his orders were to be obeyed under the penalty of pain. Since he had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, he would be following his father for the time being. He just hoped that he wouldn't just take off and ditch him, because he would be completely lost without that Scouter.

"You're gonna give that back when you're done with it right?" he asked as his father put the Scouter on and entered a set of commands. He was already starting to feel slightly naked and somewhat lost without it in this alien environment where a threat could come up out of nowhere without him ever realizing it until it was too late.

From his father's silence, he surmised that the man had absolutely no intention of returning the Scouter. That was just great. The only place you could get a new scouter was at one of Freeza's bases, and he would never be able to show his face at any of them, not that he would ever want to turn up at any of them again now that he knew the truth about Vegeta.

Eventually, the scouter emitted a small beep, and his father turned around to face him.

"Only 1500? After more than three decades of clearing planets, that's all you've got?" his father said, clearly disappointed.

He turned red with embarrassment. 1500 was pretty good considering that when Nappa and Vegeta were around he rarely ever got to fight. The pair of Elites always took the best opponents before he could get anywhere near them.

He then remembered something that perked him up slightly.

"Kakarot's power level was less than a thousand when I met him." he said almost smugly.

He smirked when he saw his father's eye twitch at this statement. The man didn't respond however, and instead set about the task of finding intelligent life.

"There's some weak beings to the North of here." his father said eventually.

"Which way is North?" he asked. Finding things without his Scouter pointing them out wasn't exactly his strong suit. Prince Vegeta would sometimes rudely joke that he was unable to find his own tail without the device. Just because he got lost on the way to the bathroom that one time...

His father stared at him incredulously before impatiently pointing in a direction somewhere to his right before telling him to "move his lazy ass" and taking to the air.

"Father, wait!" he yelled after the rapidly vanishing figure as he raced to comply.


	4. Kakarot?

**UPDATE 08/14/10! - **Alright, you no longer have to suffer from the awkward English of this story. **Lucillia** kindly cleaned up and rewrote all the chapters so far and made some edits that made the story flow better, so big thanks goes to her if you now enjoy reading the story!

* * *

**CHAPTER 3: Kakarot?**

After traveling a great distance, Bardock finally stopped over the area that Raditz's Scouter had indicated contained large number of weak beings that could either be a swarm or a city. Based on the radio frequencies the Scouter had picked up, it was more likely to be a city. His son arrived a few minutes later, looking like he had been working out in a sauna. He rolled his eyes. He himself wasn't even slightly winded.

Soon, both he and Raditz were soon standing atop a cliff that overlooked a reasonably sized metropolis that was located in a vast valley which was surrounded by a rather large mountain range. According to the readout from his Scouter, all of the city's inhabitants were rather weak, with none of their power levels going above five hundred. This was slightly disappointing because it had been a while since he had last had a good fight and he had been looking forward to the possibility of another one in the near future.

"Okay, what now?" Raditz asked, still panting slightly from the exertion of his flight, and giving the Scouter a longing glance. At least he hoped that it was the Scouter his son was looking at like that, because he wasn't sure if he could deal with the issues that would arise if he was looking at _him _like that. That would be...no, just no.

He waited a moment before answering, trying to come up with a plan. He didn't feel like blasting everything in sight at the moment, and while that would be the proper Saiyan solution to their problem, it probably wasn't the correct one. It wouldn't be very bright of him to start blowing these people away, especially if one or more of them were responsible for the situation he found himself and his son in. What if he ended up killing the one person who had all the answers, such as how temporary his little vacation from hell was?

"Shall we go down there and kill them?" Raditz asked, having been unable to wait patiently for an answer to his question. He sounded as eager as a small child at a confectionery, and was grinning at him as if they were teammates.

He snorted. That was so typical of the moron.

"No. Not yet, at least. First, we'll find out where we are and if the locals have technology that is advanced enough for space travel." he replied. He honestly didn't know what the hell he was going to be doing with a space ship since he had no home to return to, and even a brainless moron knew that traveling without a destination was just plain stupid. He just knew that he would feel more comfortable with deckplates under his feet, and a great deal of distance between him and this place.

"Couldn't we just keep one person to answer our questions and kill everyone else?" Raditz asked, obviously wanting to kill something out of boredom. How could that idiot be bored when he'd been whisked out of Hell and returned to life less than two hours ago?

"Wasn't that the same sort of thinking that got you killed in the first place? We don't know what surprises these people might have in store, and we have no way of healing ourselves in a timely manner on the off chance that we end up being beaten." he said, trying to talk some sense into his son before he did something stupid.

Raditz just scowled and turned away in response.

It was at that moment that a loud noise cut through the air and caused even the normally stoic Bardock to jump in surprise. When he looked for the source of the noise, he spotted a round craft coming from the clouds and hurling towards the city at a tremendous speed. Both he and his son tracked its progress as it sped over the valley and crashed somewhere in the city. The sound of its impact blocked out every other noise in the area, including Raditz's startled comment.

Father and son turned to each other at the same time.

"What the fuck was that?" Raditz asked, pointing towards the city in which the craft had crash landed.

"Didn't that look familiar to you?" Bardock asked, looking at the smoke that was rising from the site of the impact.

"Wasn't it one of Freeza's space pods?" Raditz asked after a moment of thought.

Raditz had hit the nail on the head. The small, round, white craft was nearly identical to the ones he had traveled in countless times when he had still been in Freeza's employ.

"Yes." he snarled, barely able to restrain himself from going over and...Thinking of Freeza made him angry, and anyone in Freeza's employ was naturally fair game. He couldn't go in half cocked however. It was just his luck that his day would be ruined by one of Freeza's minions. He just wished that Kakarot would hurry up and kill that monster. Based on his son's age in his visions it should happen sometime within the next few years.

"Whoever it is, he probably came to kill everyone here." Raditz said almost wistfully, as if he would like to join Freeza's minion in causing chaos and destruction.

Part of Bardock himself longed to start blowing things up, but he would be damned if he helped one of Freeza's minions. Come to think of it, why the hell had he been holding himself back? Ruining the day of one of Freeza's minions would so totally make his.

"Probably so, but he won't be because I'm going to go over there and wring his neck." he said, smirking evilly at the thought. After entering some instructions in the Scouter he learned that the newcomer was slightly below Raditz strengthwise. Pity, he'd wanted a better fight.

Without giving any prior indication that he was about to do so, he flew off to the impact crater leaving Raditz in his dust.

"You could warn me when you're about to fly off!" Raditz yelled behind him.

He ignored him. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Raditz's whining.

He flew through the strong valley wind over the bustling streets of the metropolis, ignoring Raditz's swearing over the fact that his hair had gotten into his face. After less than a minute, he found himself above the pod's impact site. The drifting smoke made it difficult to see properly, but he could clearly make out the open pod that rested in a hole half way up the side of a skyscraper. The pod's occupant was on the ground roughly two hundred meters below it and wasn't moving.

Much to Bardock's surprise, the man whose tattered clothing seemed to have mostly been torn off of him was actually breathing, and seriously injured rather than dead.

Even more surprising was when he studied the other man's features and found that it was like looking in a mirror, or almost like it since the other man was lighter skinned and didn't have the same scars he did.

* * *

It took Raditz only a few moments to recognize the person on the ground, despite the fact that the man's face was covered in bruises. There weren't many people he knew that looked that much like his father.

"Kakarot!" he yelled in shock, taking a step backwards. He felt several things upon recognizing the prone figure at his feet, and none of them was "happy to see his little brother".

The only thing he could think of to explain Kakarot crash landing on the very same planet he had been brought to when he was returned to life was that some being was playing a sick joke on him. Some deity somewhere hadn't been satisfied with his misery over being cast into Hell and had decided to further torment him.

As soon as he got over the initial shock of seeing his younger brother once more, his desire for revenge began to reassert itself. Looking at his brother as he was now, he found himself flashing back to the day when that brother had latched onto him and begged the Namekian to kill them both. Kakarot had actually begged for death. It had been to take him out as well, but still, a Saiyan never begged for death. Kakarot had shamed him, his family and his people, and hadn't even cared. That had been one of the reasons his death had stung so badly. To be killed by a creature as low and unworthy as Kakarot...

The realization of the reality of the situation suddenly hit like a blow to the head. A weakened Kakarot had just practically been served up to him on a silver platter. Even if his younger brother had surpassed him, it would be very easy to kill him in this state.

"Kakarot?" he heard his father repeat, somewhere next to him. There was an odd sense of awe in the man's voice. When he turned to look, he saw his father staring down at his younger brother as if he had just witnessed a miracle.

This upset him further. He had done everything he could think of to earn his father's approval without ever gaining it, and the traitor already had it, had had it in fact since the day he was born. Almost without thinking, he moved forward and planted his foot on his younger brother's chest. He growled as he almost effortlessly gathered energy into his right hand. It was time for the little bastard to pay for what he'd done. He couldn't tell whether or not his brother was conscious or not, but he wanted him to be. He wanted him to be aware of what was happening and who was doing it when he sent him to Hell.

He didn't really relish the idea of killing a fellow Saiyan especially when there were so few of their kind left, but Kakarot had proven long ago that he wasn't a true Saiyan. He had denied his race and his family, and fully deserved what was coming to him.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" his father yelled in his ear, almost startling him into blowing up the Ki ball he'd just created in his own face.

His father then grabbed his arm to halt his action with such force that he nearly crushed the bones in his forearm in the process. Then, he pulled him back roughly and turned him around to face him as if he were a misbehaving child. The expression on his face was almost murderous.

"You never learn anything do you?" his father snarled at him.

He mostly wanted to slink away to a corner somewhere and hide until his father's rage was spent, but he ended up finding a spark of defiance that he rapidly fanned into a towering inferno.

"Learn what exactly?" he yelled back. "That weak traitor doesn't deserve to live. He's insignificant scum, and I have every right to kill him."

"Insignificant scum? Insignificant scum? You nearly killed a fellow Saiyan while he was wounded and unconscious and you call _him_ insignificant scum?" his father yelled, turning the conversation the same direction it had taken in Hell a year earlier before he beat the crap out of him for killing his brother.

"Things between me and Kakarot are none of your business anyway, so why don't you butt out already!" he found himself yelling as he started to power up another Ki ball.

"If you kill him, I will make you wish that you had never been born." his father growled.

He knew that his father was serious. If he tried to kill his brother, the man would and very easily could make good on his threat. The wind fell out of his sails, and he found that he couldn't come up with a proper response.

"If you really want to fight him that badly, you can wait until he's awake and in something approaching proper fighting condition. If you touch him before then, you'll regret it. Understood?" his father said.

He stood and stared at his father after this proclamation. Kakarot was far stronger than he was when he was in full health, if Nappa's story was to be believed and his father appeared to be fully aware of this fact. Fury over his situation and his impotence when it came to defying his father's will burned in his eyes. Why did his father care about Kakarot at all, much less value the bastard over him? Kakarot wasn't worth it, and never had been.

"What the hell are you defending him for? He's worthless! He never did anything right, and doesn't even want to be a Saiyan!" he eventually yelled, unable to hide the bitterness that accompanied his anger.

* * *

Bardock paused for a moment after Raditz's question, trying to carefully formulate a proper response. He couldn't just blurt out that Kakarot was fated to defeat Freeza. Not even a moron like Raditz would believe that, even if it was true. Something eventually came to him when he remembered Raditz's story about his demise.

"You're the last person to tell which Saiyan is worthy and which isn't. You're an honorless coward, and Kakarot isn't. Before you go yelling about how he turned his back on his people and his family, let me remind you that you stole his son from him and attempted to demand a ransom. He did what any Saiyan would do in such a situation and tried to take you out despite the fact that he was much weaker than you were at the time and had no hope of coming out of the situation alive. The only disgrace here is you." he finally said, putting every bit of contempt he felt for his elder son into his statement. He wasn't about to rehash the argument they had in Hell when the brat had first arrived.

"Excuse me, but..." A small squeaky voice cut across whatever response Raditz had been about to make, and effectively ended the argument.

He turned to search for the source of the voice and was surprised to find that dozens of small creatures had snuck up on them while he had been preoccupied with Raditz's attempted fratricide and the argument that followed. He felt slightly embarrassed for allowing that to happen. All of that time he'd spent in Hell had obviously dulled his senses. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Raditz was just as surprised as he was.

The small beings that surrounded them had blue skin, pairs of small blunt horns set atop round, but slightly flattish heads in which a pair of small, almost beady, black eyes were set. Their slightly blank stares gave him the impression that they weren't the sharpest crayons in the box, and their short statures made them appear to be completely nonthreatening. As for their clothes, they looked completely ridiculous, and he would not be caught dead in them. All in all, they pretty much appeared to sum up the word "weakling".

The appearance and timid behavior of the creatures caused him to loosen up again and shift out of the fighting stance he'd almost unconsciously moved into when he realized that there was someone there besides himself, Raditz and the unconscious Kakarot in the immediate area. With Kakarot's arriva,l and his argument with Raditz he had almost forgotten that he had come here to seek out the local population and hopefully find the answers to the mystery of where he was and why he was here.

Glancing at Raditz, he noticed that there was bloodlust rising in the man's eyes, and that his hands were twitching as if he wanted to hit or strangle something. He sent the man a warning glare before he could do something stupid and cause the situation to spiral out of control. They weren't going to kill the people here, not yet at least.

"Do you guys need any help?" one of the creatures asked, looking down at Kakarot in concern.

He paused and thought for a moment. Kakarot would need medical attention quickly if he were to survive the night, and since these unsuspecting natives were offering to help...Why not? Besides, he needed to get a clear idea of where he was and the natives would be able to provide that answer at least, even if they weren't able to answer what he was doing here in the first place.

"Yes." he said, and then pointed to Kakarot. "At least he does."

Raditz snorted, crossed his arms, and leered down at the creatures in a threatening manner, apparently not caring whether or not his bad first impression would cause the locals to rescind their offer of aide.

A small group of the beings surrounded Kakarot and began examining him closely. Most of them seemed to want to study the half-dead Saiyan, and for good reason, the two that were awake were far more threatening. Only the bravest amongst the creatures dared approach him and Raditz, and even they looked as if they would scurry away at a moment's notice. Apparently he and his son weren't very friendly looking.

"We will be glad to provide assistance." the creature who had apparently appointed him or herself as the spokesperson for the group said kindly. "If I may ask, who are you and where are you from?"

He frowned. This had probably been the first time ever that a being from a planet he'd landed on had dared converse with him in a friendly manner rather than make some defiant speech before a pointless last stand or run away screaming. That was probably because every other time he'd been on an alien planet before, he had been tasked with the assignment of clearing out the local populace. It felt...odd.

"That's none of your..." Raditz started, before he cut him off.

"Shut up Raditz." he said. At this moment, behaving in an antagonistic manner wasn't to their benefit.

He ignored the look his son was giving him before he schooled his features into something more friendly, or at the very least less frightening. Playing the peaceful stranger was going to be difficult, but until Kakarot was better and he had a better grasp of the situation, he would have to try.

"My name is Bardock, and this is my son Raditz. We're from...somewhere very far away, and honestly don't have any idea what we're doing here." he said, thinking that he sounded very stupid as he said it.

He didn't mention their species or planet of origin, as the Saiyans' reputation for violence and wanton destruction was well known across the universe and would undoubtedly frighten the creatures who had apparently been unable to recognize them on sight. If they were frightened, there was a good chance that they would withdraw their offer for assistance, and his first aid skills where nowhere near up to the task of dealing with Kakarot's injuries.

"I see." the blue skinned creature said, shifting his focus form him to the prone Kakarot who had several of the creatures crawling all over him like a swarm of insects "Is the injured one related to you as well?"

Bardock could sense Raditz rolling his eyes at this question.

"His name's idiot, and he's my thick headed baby brother. Feel free to eat him, or whatever." Raditz said.

The little dwarflike creature blinked in confusion at this statement.

He sighed tiredly, barely containing the growing desire to blow his son's head off.

"That is my second son. His name isn't Idiot, it's Kakarot, and I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't try to eat him." he said.

While he and the - well for lack of a better word - group's spokesperson had talked, he had heard the creatures that surrounded Kakarot conversing in their native language. At one point, several of them raised their voices, but eventually they calmed back down. When he turned to them to see what was going on, he saw several of them dragging Kakarot away. The group's spokesperson turned to follow them, and indicated that he should do so as well.

"Your son seems to be badly injured, so we're taking him to the main healing point as quickly as we can. Once we're there, you can tell us a little more about yourselves." the spokesperson said rather kindly. The smile he or she gave him was probably meant to be kind, but it was somewhat creepy.

He followed, and Raditz reluctantly trailed behind him. They were soon well away from the damaged sky scraper and broken space pod. When he looked behind him, it seemed as if the entire local population was following them as well. Having people from outer space drop by was probably an extremely rare occurrence. From their expressions, it seemed that they had even less of an idea as to what he was doing here than he did.

He then realized that he still didn't know where he was.

"What planet is this anyway?" he asked, feeling slightly embarrassed that he had forgotten to ask earlier.

"This is the planet Yadrat." a blue skinned creature who may or may not have been the spokesperson replied with a wide gesture that seemed to take in all of the scenery.

* * *

Raditz gloomily followed his father. His day just kept getting worse. For every good thing that seemed to happen, something bad almost immediately followed. He'd left Hell, which was good. He ended up in a thorn bush, and was going to have to pull bits of twigs, leaves, and random shrubbery out of his hair later, which was bad. He had returned to life, which was good. His father had as well, which was bad. An injured Kakarot had fallen out of the sky and practically into his lap, which was good. His father stopped him from killing him and the little little aliens were going to fix him, which as far as he was concerned was bad.

The name "Yadrat" sounded vaguely familiar now that he thought about it. Maybe, it was on the list of planets that Freeza was going to clear but hadn't yet gotten around to. He silently laughed at the thought that these Yadratians were helping people who would have normally conquered their world without a second thought. Hopefully his father would tire of his little game soon, and he would be able to slaughter these creatures like he was itching to do.

He eventually moved so that he was walking by his father's side. The man seemed to be doing his best to ignore him. He managed to get his attention by staring at him until he turned to look at him though.

"So how long are you going to pretend to be friends with these creatures? Weren't we only supposed to learn where we were and how advanced the technology was?" he asked quietly, looking around to make sure nobody was listening in on their conversation. He really didn't care whether or not anyone was, but he wasn't about to upset his father unnecessarily.

"At the moment, we only know where we are, and since Kakarot needs help, it wouldn't be good to start causing chaos." his father replied just as quietly.

He couldn't believe this shit. His father was worrying over Kakarot like some weakling woman! If only he were stronger, then he wouldn't have to play nice and do everything his father ordered. If only...

While he was thinking - or sulking rather - his eyes explored the city around him. Other than the few skyscrapers that were scattered about in an almost random manner, most of the buildings weren't very tall. The area he was currently in seemed to be a residential district that consisted mainly of round one story houses.

Looking behind him, he could clearly see that one of the skyscrapers was slightly bent out of shape, having been damaged by Kakarot's pod.

Come to think of it, he never did check to see what condition the pod was in after Kakarot's spectacular crash landing. Space pods tended to be rather durable out of necessity, because they were piloted by complete morons most of the time. If he were lucky, it would still be usable and he could steal it to get away from this stupid little -

He paused. There wasn't really any point in going to Earth now because his little brother was here. Trying to get his revenge by killing the man's family was pointless, considering the fact that his nephew had been the stronger of the two. He wouldn't get very far before that watery eyed brat beat the shit out of him again, and that would be far worse than being defeated by Kakarot once more. Where would he go then? Getting revenge on Kakarot had driven him so far, and Kakarot was here.


	5. Awakening

**UPDATE 08/14/10! - **Alright, you no longer have to suffer from the awkward English of this story. **Lucillia** kindly cleaned up and rewrote all the chapters so far and made some edits that made the story flow better, so big thanks goes to her if you now enjoy reading the story!

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: Awakening**

Raditz sat on the floor with his arms crossed, feeling more annoyed than usual. At the moment he was in a skyscraper that housed the city's "Healing Point". Unlike the facilities on the long destroyed Vegeta or aboard Freeza's ship or at Freeza's numerous bases scattered about the galaxy, this building didn't have any regen tanks. Apparently, Yadratian technology wasn't that advanced. Instead, the creatures had wrapped Kakarot in bandages and inserted cords that were supposed to speed up the cell regeneration process under his skin.

He really didn't know what he and his father were doing here. They could be doing better things than sitting here and watching the locals tend to Kakarot as if he were a beloved child. Coddling Kakarot was the farthest thing from what he wanted to do to him, but shit happens and his father wasn't going to let him torture his brother before he killed him. Since his father wanted to stay until he knew whether or not Kakarot was going to get better, he was stuck.

His father was currently standing by Kakarot's bedside as if he couldn't wait for the loser to wake up so he could speak with him.

He growled silently. If it had been him laying there half dead, his father wouldn't have given a damn. That thought made him want to blow up the whole building for some reason.

When Kakarot woke up, his father would see just what sort of an idiot he was, and when he did, he'd be forced to apologize. When his father apologized, he wouldn't accept it even if the man got down on bended knees.

A pair of Yadrats walked over to Kakarot's bedside, completely ignoring his presence. One of them just stood there staring up at his father with a weird grin on his face while the other poured water from a bottle he had been carrying into Kakarot's mouth, hopefully trying to drown him.

His father ignored the staring Yadrat, and focused on his companion instead.

"When is he going to wake up?" his father asked impatiently.

The Yadrat who had been giving Kakarot water whirled around so quickly, that he'd almost think his father was pointing a weapon at it. It was apparently far more frightened of him that its companion who was still staring up at his father in awe.

"I-I'm not sure. M-maybe a day, c-considering his c-condition." The creature stammered.

He watched his father, and could tell that he was thinking one thing at the moment, that the Yadrat was pathetic. His father had never cared for timid, fearful creatures. That had probably been his biggest mistake in life. The first time he remembered seeing his father, he'd been hiding behind his mother.

"About a day...I see." his father murmured, shifting his focus back to Kakarot.

"Y-yes. I-If you d-don't mind, I-I'll be l-leaving n-now." the creature said before turning to its companion. "Biru, are you coming?"

The one that had been staring at his father snapped back into reality at that point. After tearing his gaze away, he gave his companion an annoyed look and shook his head.

"Not just yet Rosso. I told you that I wasn't scared of them." the little creature whose name was apparently Biru said.

That comment made him grin sadistically. Not scared of him, huh? Stupid creature. Normally such curiosity would lead to it being killed. Even now, he felt like attacking it...

He forced his thoughts away from the path they were taking. As bored as he was, he wasn't stupid enough to start another fight with his father. He was better off just sitting where he was until a _certain someone _realized that he was just wasting his time.

As soon as the creature named Rosso departed, the one called Biru turned back to his father, looking excited.

"It's awesome to see real aliens." it loudly announced, excitement gleaming in it's little black eyes.

He could tell from the creature's behavior that despite the fact that it didn't look very different from the adult Yadrat, it was very young. His father's expression told him that he found the blue creature's babbling to be annoying, but then again, his father had never liked children...

Biru apparently didn't notice that his presence was somewhat unwelcome, because he continued chattering.

"Everyone is really eager to know who you are. Of course everyone knows your names are Bar Dog and Radish, but..." the blue being said excitedly.

"Our names are Bardock and Raditz, dipshit." he corrected the creature grumpily.

"Oh, sorry. Well anyways, everyone wants to know how you ended up here. Were you headed somewhere else when you crash landed? And, why was it that only he was injured?" the creature asked, pointing to Kakarot at the last question.

From the look on his father's face, he wasn't too comfortable with all of the questions and was getting slightly squirmy with the thought of answering them if the way his tail was twitching was any indication. It seemed that it was up to him to be the one with balls then.

"Let me tell you brat." he said in his Interrupt-me-and-die tone of voice as he moved in so close to the small creature that he practically had to look straight down to see its face. "One minute, me and my father were in the afterlife minding our own business, and the next, we're standing in a freaking forest. We didn't come with the brain damaged moron in the one man pod, so if anyone's going to be paying for the damage to that building, it won't be me."

"Huh?" Biru said in confusion. "You're saying you were dead? But people can't come back from the dead!"

"That's exactly why we don't know what the fuck we're doing here." he replied.

"But you all know each-other. At least that's what I was told. If you two were dead and he wasn't, then..." the little creature said.

"Funny coincidence now isn't it?" he replied wryly.

"You guys are total weirdos" Biru said, shrugging. "But, you're cool anyway."

He rolled his eyes. This had been the first time a weakling child had gotten away with having a conversation with him like this and survived. If he had his way, it wouldn't be. It was almost sad that the little creature would be allowed to think that it was acceptable to spend time with them as if they were a couple of its weakling friends.

"I gotta go for now, but I'll come back as soon as I can and you can tell me where you're going to go and what you plan on doing next!" the creature said before turning and heading towards the exit.

When it reached the door, it paused and turned back.

"If you really were dead, then I think that pal of yours will be very happy to see you again!" the creature said cheerfully and headed out into the corridor before he could reply.

_Happy to see us? Kakarot'll be absolutely thrilled._ he thought sarcastically.

For the first time, he was almost eager for his younger brother to wake up. He couldn't wait to see the look on his face.

* * *

Bardock found himself staring at the ceiling while he waited for something, anything really, to happen.

"You know he's not going to hug you when he sees you dad. He doesn't remember you, and he'll see you as a threat." Raditz said shortly after the small creature had departed. The almost smug look in his son's eyes told him that the brat was envisioning such a scene, and that it was probably filled with a great deal of gratuitous violence.

"Shut it. Unlike you, I don't plan on unduly antagonizing Kakarot." he replied coldly. He wouldn't be making the same mistakes Raditz did. While it was true that thanks to Raditz, Kakarot would most likely see him as a threat, he didn't think his son would attack him the instant he woke up. And, if a fight did ensue, it wouldn't be him who started it.

He deliberately turned his attention away from his elder son, and focused once more on his younger. He'd been watching Kakarot for a while now, as if just looking at him would wake him up. Seeing him like this made him smile nostalgically. He himself had looked a like this after more missions than he could count.

It was a rather interesting coincidence that out of all of the planets he could have been resurrected on, it had been on the one his son had crash landed on shortly afterward. Was it really a coincidence though? Why just him, and his sons? What was he being set up for?

"I'm hungry." Raditz suddenly whined, shortly after he'd started to forget the brat was even there.

"Well, go get yourself some food then. I'm not going to provide for you. You're an adult, so stop following me around like a freaking toddler." he snapped back.

From the look on his son's face, it had been obvious that he wanted him to go with him. He didn't know why though. They weren't teammates, even if they had ended up on the same planet at the same time. If Raditz or someone just like him had ever been put on his team, he would probably have murdered him before the day was out. Toma, Celipa, and Panbukin would have gladly helped, both with the murder and the cover-up afterward.

"You're the one with the Scouter. Do you have any idea how hard it is to navigate without one?" Raditz replied angrily.

He had been about to reply that he'd done perfectly fine without one in Hell, but before he could open his mouth to speak Raditz interrupted him.

"You've been dead for longer than I have. Are you seriously telling me that you're not hungry?" Raditz asked.

He forgot what he was about to say when his own hunger suddenly rose up and made itself known as if Raditz's words had summoned it. He wasn't just hungry, he was _starving_. He'd just gotten used to the feeling after more than twenty years in Hell. But now that he was reminded...He was amazed that he didn't resort to cannibalism then and there.

There wasn't really anything better to do than go and get himself some food anyways. All there was to do here at the moment, was watch Kakarot sleep and hope that Yadrat kid didn't return and start firing off a bunch more uncomfortable questions.

"Very well then, let's go get some food." he said, trying to sound like he was magnanimously acquiescing to Raditz's request rather than that he was starving and desperate to eat himself.

He got up and turned to go, feeling his dumb hairball of a son grinning stupidly behind him.

When they left the building, dozens of the Yadrat turned to stare at them. Some of the creatures moved in for a closer look, while others backed away. At any rate, all of them were whispering to each other, and it wasn't too hard to guess the subject of their conversations.

They started walking down the street at a rapid pace. Moving through the mass of Yadratians wasn't as difficult as it would appear, as the creatures would immediately give them the right of way when they approached. All they had to do now was find something to eat. Fortunately for them, Saiyans had strong stomachs and were notoriously difficult to poison. It was these features that had allowed them to survive on just about every world that had a compatible atmosphere.

* * *

It didn't take long for Biru to return to the injured stranger. He had just gone to visit his friends to tell them about the information he had gathered from the aliens. Out of him and his friends, he had been the only one brave enough to speak with the aliens, even though he didn't think it took a great deal of courage to do so. He was excited to have them around. It wasn't every day that you met real aliens, and they weren't at all scary, like they were in the comic books. Sure, they were quiet, grumpy, and really weird, but they would have attacked already if they planned to do so. He probably would be upset too if he was dragged out of heaven or wherever and dumped on a strange world for no apparent reason. The others were way too scared in his opinion. He trusted them - even if the long haired one's story was totally unbelievable - and wanted to befriend them.

When he got back however, Bardock and Raditz were gone. Other than the Kak...whoever person on the bed, the room was completely empty. He sighed unhappily. He had so wanted to ask the guys a few more questions such as "What was the afterlife like?", and "How did you return?".

"Those two are such weirdos." said a voice behind him, startling him.

When he turned around, he saw that two nurses had entered the room.

"You said it. They're grumpy all the time, and rarely say anything! Then, they just up and vanish without a word, leaving this one behind." the other nurse replied.

It was at that point that they noticed Biru. They both and looked at each-other as if they were each silently asking the other when he had entered the room.

"Hello Biru, did you come to visit the aliens?" one of the nurses asked.

"They both left some time ago..." the other said.

"Yeah. I would have liked to learn more about them." he admitted, not even bothering to hide his disappointment. Even so, he was giving the unconscious one hopeful glances despite the fact that he wasn't expected to wake up any time soon. It looked a whole lot like the one named Bardock, but hopefully it would be more talkative.

"Biru," one of the nurses said, pausing her examination of the unconscious alien. "You should have learned by now to be more careful around strangers."

"Exactly." the other nurse said. "Haven't you heard what they're saying about these newcomers?"

The question seemed to have been directed more at her companion, than it had been at him as the tone she had taken was that of a person who was sharing a bit of juicy gossip.

"What have they been saying Turkiis?" the other nurse asked eagerly, looking up from where she had been taking the alien's pulse.

He decided to remain and listen instead of leaving to find the two aliens, because was eager to find out himself.

"Well Gult, they're saying that those aliens are Saiyans!" Turkiis exclaimed.

Gult gasped as if what Turkiis had said was very shocking, and fearfully backed away from the stranger on the bed. He on the other hand stood there staring at the two in confusion, wondering what was so shocking about that. What were Saiyans anyways?

"B-But I thought they all vanished ages ago!" Gult said, looking as if she wanted to teleport well away from the peacefully sleeping Saiyan. Biru rolled his eyes. Not only had these guys not been a threat so far, but everyone on Yadrat could just teleport away if there was any danger anyways.

"What are Saiyans?" he asked, curiously.

"It's probably not surprising that you don't know, considering how young you are," Turkiis said compassionately "But, a long time ago the Saiyans were well known for their habit of traveling to distant planets and killing all of their inhabitants."

* * *

Goku was confused. He didn't know where he was, and everything was dark. Just a moment ago, he had been having fun walking around some strange world joking around with Gohan and Krillin. Then suddenly, Vegeta appeared. He stood right in front of them, glaring angrily. When he started speaking, it hadn't been in his own voice but in a voice he recognized from somewhere else.

Vegeta's hair suddenly started getting longer, and he started getting taller. His familiar white armor with yellow shoulder guards turned into black armor with brown shoulder guards. Looking again, he realized that it wasn't Vegeta standing before him, but his evil older brother Raditz instead.

"That weak traitor doesn't deserve to live!" Raditz yelled bitterly and angrily.

It was at that point that he realized that Gohan and Krillin had vanished, leaving him alone to face his brother whose eyes were filled with hate. He prepared to fight, but to his surprise his brother didn't attack. He just stared at him while he continued talking as if he were speaking to someone else.

"He is insignificant scum, and I have every right to eliminate him!" Raditz said.

It was at that point that everything went dark. He felt like there was no way to escape, and Raditz's voice was echoing everywhere, making him feel as if he could attack from anywhere. It was distressing.

Suddenly, Goku found himself waking up to the sound of unfamiliar voices. He soon noticed that he was on something soft and that he was looking at a ceiling that he was pretty sure he'd never seen before. His head hurt, and every part of his body felt as if it were on fire, but he felt a little better than he did when he departed the surface of the rapidly crumbling planet Namek and sailed off in to the vast unknown reaches of space.

It had been a long long time since he had nightmares like that. The subject of his nightmare was rather surprising, considering the fact that he'd just faced and defeated Freeza who was on a much higher plane than his older brother Raditz. Well, at any rate it was just a dream.

He was relieved to note that he had made it out alive, even if he had no idea where he was. This place clearly wasn't the afterlife - he knew, he'd been there before - and it didn't smell anything like Earth. He was also thankful that some kind person had found him and decided to take care of him.

He soon decided that he would be able to gather more information about his surroundings if he sat up. He wasn't entirely certain he could do so though. He started by turning his head to the left, and promptly regretted it. Damn, beating Freeza had really taken its toll.

"I thought so too Gult, but it seems that we were wrong if it's true that those aliens really are..." said a nearby voice. It was one of the voices that had woken him up.

"I talked with them earlier, and one of them said that they had been brought back to life." another - much younger sounding - voice said.

He didn't have a clue as to what the voices were talking about and didn't really care. He just wanted to see who it was that had been caring for him and what they looked like, because they didn't smell human.

He tried to lift his head from the pillow - or whatever the thing under his head was - but only managed to raise it about five centimeters before a stabbing pain forced him to lower it again. He had even felt that in muscles that had almost nothing to do with his neck.

"Ouch." he groaned loudly.

The voices immediately went silent, and even though he couldn't see it, he could tell that the people they belonged to were _looking_ at him. The feeling made him feel awkward, and he didn't like it. He decided that he wasn't just going to lay there and complain. He was going to do something about it. He was going to stare right back at them and see how they liked it. To do that however, he was going to have to lift his head.

He used his arms to lever himself up so he could properly see the rest of the room. His pain ended up being all but forgotten when he caught sight of the room's other occupants. The three of them were small, blue, and rather funny looking creatures that weren't even remotely human in appearance.

"Heh heh...hello." he greeted hoarsely, forcing a weak smile onto his face.

The creatures just stared back at him, making him feel even more uncomfortable.

"Can you tell me where I am?" he asked.

Two of the aliens looked at each-other with expressions he couldn't decipher. The third one however gave him a wide - and possibly friendly - grin while looking him right in the eyes.

"You're on the planet Yadrat." the creature said before he eagerly raced over to the bed and stared up at him in what could be admiration.

Normally he would have smiled back at the creature, but he was just too tired, confused, and in too much pain to do so.

"And what...I mean, who are you?" he asked as he allowed himself to fall back down onto the bed. There was no point in remaining up anymore now that one of his caretakers was near enough that he wouldn't even have to turn his head to see it. He wasn't entirely sure how much longer he could have held that position anyways. It had been excruciating.

"We're the people of the planet of course. My name is Biru, and they are Gult and Turkiis" the small creature said, gesturing in the direction in which the two others were located. "Your name is Kaka...Kaka...How did it go again? Oh yeah, Kakarot."

Goku started in surprise - or would have if he were able to - when he heard that name. He ended up giving the Yadratian a very shocked and confused look. Two things about this had surprised him. First, - as far as he knew - only Saiyans called him by that name, and second, he had never seen these creatures before in his life, so, how could they even possibly know that name?

Were these Yadratians psychics of some sort, and had they read his mind while he had been unconscious? That didn't explain why the one called Biru had used that name instead of the one he always referred to himself by however. Unless he, Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta were extremely odd looking exceptions, he was pretty certain that these people weren't Saiyans.

"My name is Son Goku." he corrected with a slight frown. "How do you know that other name? The only ones who have called me by it so far were Saiyans."

The temperature in the room suddenly seemed to drop several degrees. The one called Biru turned to look at the other two the instant he'd uttered the word "Saiyans". From the look on Biru's face when he turned back to him, he had the feeling that he probably wouldn't like the answer to his question.

"They really are Saiyans!" one of them said sounding panicked, when it finally came out of its shocked silence.

"I told you!" either Gult or Turkiis - he wasn't sure which was which - exclaimed.

"...Huh?" he said, totally confused. What had either Gult or Turkiis meant by_ they_?

Biru looked at him with a serious expression.

"If you really are one of those Saiyans or whatever, are you here to take over the planet like some idiots in the room think you are?" Biru asked, in a slightly fed up tone before turning to scowl at his companions.

He blinked stupidly for a bit. That question had really thrown him for a loop. Nobody had ever seen him as a bad guy before. The Saiyans' reputation apparently wasn't going to be doing him any favors.

"Of course I'm not. I might be a Saiyan, but I grew up on Earth and I've never had anything to do with conquering planets or anything like that. That whole thing with Namek wasn't my fault. How was I supposed to know that Freeza himself would show up and destroy the place?" he said, trying and apparently failing to reassure the people who had taken care of him.

"Oh, really? What about the other two then? Were they raised on Earth as well?" either Gult or Turkiss asked.

He was now even more confused than before. What were they talking about? He had been the only one left on Namek when it blew, and had been completely alone in the pod. Nobody else could have possibly traveled with him. Besides, as far as he knew, other than him, Prince Vegeta was the only other living Saiyan in existence. And knowing Vegeta, the fact that he was still alive after having been unconscious was a good indication that the man wasn't on this planet, much less anywhere nearby.

"What do you mean by the other two?" he asked as he levered himself back up so he could look at the room's other occupants.

"The two that came with you of course!" Biru loudly exclaimed.

He didn't find this explanation remotely enlightening, and Biru apparently realized that upon noticing his completely puzzled expression.

"They told us they knew you. They also said that they hadn't traveled with you, but I wasn't sure whether or not to believe them. They're due back any time now, so I'm sure you'll recognize them when you see them." Biru explained.

"They're the ones who told us your name." either Gult or Turkiis said.

What the heck was going on here? He rarely ever felt anywhere near as confused as he did now. This was worse than the time Master Roshi had tried to make him bring him an attractive female and had been upset with him when he came back with a big, strong one who was sure to breed healthy offspring. Biru talked about the two "other Saiyans" as if they were really close to him, like Gohan or Krillin, as if he would be able to guess who they were by his merely mentioning them, rather than the total strangers they actually were.

He hoped that the two Saiyans would arrive soon so he could solve this little mystery. Not knowing bothered him.

Until then however, the only thing he could do was wait. He hated waiting.


End file.
