Royal Spaceport on Vegeta

Two Hours Later

Bardock peeks around the corner, before turning back the the Scouter he has plugged into the computer in front of him; he holds his infant son under his arm. God, he's going to turn out underdeveloped. Maybe he should pick another planet from the catalog on the computer… one with reeeally high nutrition to make up for his being pulled out of the growth pod.

"Hm, Kakarotto, what do you think? Wanna go to Namcheck?"

"Oogu?" the baby monkey mumbles as he looks up at his father, wide-eyed. Infants in the incubators are far noisier, but fresh out of growth pods it's almost like they're drugged. He grumbles before slinging the toddler back over his shoulder and skimming his Scouter; this was the latest model from Rithica, couldn't the damn thing go any faster?

"Oh hey, Bardock!"

He bolts straight up, startled by the callout. He whips around and rips out the wire attaching his Scouter to the computer, and accidentally gives the baby some whiplash as he barely manages to catch him.

"Uh hey, Beets? What're you doing… out here so late?"

"I work here, Bardock, you should know… what are you doing here."

"Oh! Uh… giving my son a tour?" he stammers awkwardly, thrusting the baby out in front of him.

"Bah!"

"Aw, is that little Kakarotto? Wait, no, you can't distract me! You've got to get out of here- Freezer wants all saiyans besides those on special missions on Vegeta tomorrow. Taro told me something was up with you-!" he stutters, before finding himself suddenly interrupted by the ting of a laser pistol. He stares in shock as his Scouter shatters into pieces.

"Beets, I'm doing this even if you try to stop me. Get. Out. Of my way. You of all saiyans, should know just how strong I really am for a low-class warrior," he growls at the technician. His eye catches a glance of the last planet in the search history of his Scouter; the closest one he's likely to get for the ideal place to drop Kakarotto.

… Earth? Never heard of that place. Probably for the best… it probably won't show up on the Freezer Force's radar for quite some time.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"Y… you're not cleared for this, or any kind of takeoff…"

"Shut up and program the pods."

The scrawny saiyan mutters under his breath about how much trouble he's going to get in after this.

"All right, you happy Bardock?! You happy about this man's career you just ground into dust?!"

"If it saves my damn son's life, then yes, yes I am."

"God… I almost wish you were right, just so I don't have to see the look on Rashi's face…"

"That reminds me… hey, Beets, the pods done yet?"

"Yeah, they're done. Just touch and go; please, just, get out of here."

"… Hey Beets?"

"What?!"

"You ever hear about the concept of 'leaving no witnesses'?"

The smaller man looks up in bamboozlement for a split second before comprehension dawns on his face; instantly, he springs into action to try and scramble away. Unfortunately, his captor's speed and power outclass him by an entire order of magnitude. Beets struggles against the deathgrip of the warrior's beefy hand, his face turning purple with exertion as he lets out a muffled scream.

"Sorry, Beets."

Kakarotto stares blankly off into space as the crunch of a neck snapping rings through the deserted complex. Bardock looks around and quickly shoves the body into one of the pods, the one programmed to head for Earth.

"… Guess this'll be your first real meal, Kakarotto. Hope you enjoy saiyan," he grumbles sardonically as the toddler is picked up and plopped next to the dead body. Good thing Beets was so small for a full-grown man.

"Kakarotto… don't forget us, okay? Me, and your mother, and… I guess Raditz, if you've met him."

The hatch slides closed over the entrance of the pod; some comprehension dawns in the infant's eyes for the first time as he raises a hand, placing it over the visor.

"Ba?"

"Yeah, Kakarotto. I'm your 'ba'."

He places his own hand on the hatch's visor, seemingly covering Kakarotto's. The saiyans gaze into each other's eyes for a good long second before Bardock quickly turns around.

"Sayonara, Kakarotto."

Thus as he prepares to send off for Meat, his fated child blasts off to worlds unknown.

Freezer's Ship: Orbit over Vegeta

"But without the saiyans, our fighting force will be drastically reduced! Almost by half!"

"My troops will still be able to get by, Kikono. These barbarians pretend to be submissive, but they're dangerous. They could bare their fangs against us at any time!"

"Eh…?!"

"They are, after all, a species completely comprised of warriors. It's always best to put a sleeping beast down… before it can be awakened. I attack at dawn tomorrow; Kikono, have you made sure their spaceports are disabled?"

"Yes, sire!"

"Do one more run, just to be on the safe side; and cripple their communications, too. Now… should I detonate the core with a Supernova attack, or a Death Ball…? What do you think, Berriblue?"

Planet Meat

"HuuuuuuuuaaaaaAAAAAAG-CK!"

The brawling saiyan is slapped in the face hard enough to shatter rock; a quick follow-up punch knocks his lights out. He sprawls back, comatose.

"Borgos," a heavily wounded Tora mutters under his breath. "No… Damn you, brutes…" He slowly, painfully reaches for his dropped Scouter, only for it to be crushed underfoot. He gazes up into the cold, sneering face of their attackers…

"Why?! Tell me! Why are you doing this?! I… I don't understand!"

The cronies just laugh at him, cackling along. Comments like "loser" and "poor thing" are dropped in sickeningly sweet voices while the aliens mock him.

"What don't you understand, Tora?" bursts out the voice behind this. The brutish, despicable pink clod of a General. "That you are weak?"

Tora raises his head, glaring at the monster. Dodoria smirks as he kneels down, looking him right in the eyes.

"What a mess you are. Aaaaahh, Tora… my monkey man…" his hand suddenly shoots out, almost ripping out a good chunk of the saiyan's chest meat through his battle armor before he yanks him up to eye level.

"You shouldn't have forgotten that you are weak."

"What… whaddaya mean? We serve Freezer! You know that!"

"Yes, I know~. Freezer's very impressed with your service record," he grumbles out as laughter begins to emanate through the ranks again. "Yes… too impressed. (Huh?) It seems he wants you dead."

"Hwhat? Why?!"

"I don't want to flatter you, but Freezer thought you were getting too strong."

The fruian in the back pipes up in a squeaking voice, cackling.

"Cool, huh? You should consider this a promotion!

"HEHEHEAHEHEAHEHAHHAHEHEHHHEAHEHEHAE!"

"It… it's not fair. Everything that we've done… was for him… How could he do this…?"

"You fool, it's not what you've done! It's what you might have done, in the future?"

"… What?"

"Oh, you don't like that, Tora? Let's see if you like THIS!"

Tora is suddenly greeted by a wave of pink flesh, before everything goes black.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"It looks like they plowed right through this one… I hope I managed to teach those knuckleheads something about fighting after all…"

The saiyan surveys the landscape, looking over the carnage. No sign of his friends… or a Freezer Force hit team. Just dead natives for kloms around. He grumbles before hitting his Scouter.

"That… must be them. Lousy bums, if they're just celebrating, I'm gonna tear them a new one…" he mutters as he blasts off to the indicated location on his screen.

"Borgos!"

Bardock immediately skids to a stop and slams into the rubble. He rushes to his friend, checking for any signs of life. "Borgos… Fasha? Shugesh?! Oh, gods… those monsters…"

"bardock…"

"Tora?!"

His Scouter manages to pick up the fading energy signature. He whips around towards a pile of rubble.

"TORA! Are you in there?!"

"b-bardock…"

"DAMN IT!"

He cries out and immediately fires an energy blast at the rubble. It takes him a second before realizing this is probably not the best idea; he proceeds to mumble his regrets before simply floating to the position and starting to sort through the rubble.

"Come on, come on Tora! Don't tell me you lost to those meatheads!"

Tora's face is exposed, and he coughs as Bardock unburies his torso, wincing at the makeshift tourniquet on his bicep. "N-no, come on man… you should know us better than that… We… we were ambushed… by…"

"I know, Tora. I know. Which one of them?! Which one of Freezer's bastards did this to you?! And… and why…?"

"It… Dodoria. We took the jobs that even his elites wouldn't mess with… and we still won! We… were getting to be the best, and Freezer's scared…"

"Scared of what?!"

"Of you, Bardock… don't ya see…? He's scared of what you might become! The… the super saiyan… you were getting too strong…"

Tora coughs up some blood, and they both realize… he's not going to make it, no matter what they do. Bardock winces and places a palm on his chest; energy starts to flicker. "Goodbye, Tora."

"do it. … and… good luck, old friend…"

And with that, Bardock punches out Tora's heart with an energy blast. His breathing stills; as much as he tries to hide it, this is the second time Bardock has almost cried in just a day or so.

"So… so this is what it's come to. This is how we're rewarded for our hard work! We tried so hard to satisfy Freezer! My crew… Those pigs! So they thought we were getting too strong! Borgos, Fasha, I promise I'll get them for this! Shugesh, Tora! I'll die trying! Frieza's taken our loyalty… and played us like a damn fiddle!"

His voice rises in volume as he clenches his fist, sheer rage threatening to overwhelm him. Saiyans know grief… it's not unheard of, specially given their lifestyle. But this is no ordinary fall in battle, this is sheer betrayal, something unnatural. For as much as he had suspected, as much has he had seen with the Kanassan's curse… the confirmation in the form of his best friend's corpse was a little much for him.

"Useless-ass psychic powers…"

He clenches his fist, shaking in fury; his nails draw blood where they dig into his palms. He kneels over the body of his comrade, taking the tourniquet from his arm and unwrapping it. Bardock moves over his face, and cleans the blood off, making slow deliberate movements to give Tora at least a substitute for a proper burial as the cloth soaks with blood, dying a deep red. He proceeds to knock the rubble back over Tora's body, and wraps the band around his forehead as a reminder… of what Freezer has done.

"I thought there was a foul smell in the air! So you're the ones!"

The approaching daik warrior and his comrades freeze, before laughing nervously. "Heh, Bardock! You crack me up! We had some good laughs with your crew earlier, too; you shoulda been there!"

"You're right: I should have."

The fruian cackles; "Do you really think it would have made that much of a difference, Bardock? I mean, really? You aren't an elite; it's not as if you were taught how to make a false moon, you brilliant scientist."

The stoic warrior stares them down, really fucking pissed.

"HUUUUUAUAAAAAGAH!"

He bum-rushes the group, smashing the ground where they stood only a second before as they scatter into the air. The fighter startles before staggering under the force of the fruian's Die Die Missile Barrage, the energy bullets slamming into him like a flurry of punches and kicking up clouds dust with their explosions.

"There, that should do it–*SGACK*!" The other soldiers are alerted by a strangled shriek; they turn to the recently triumphant alien only to see his corpse falling out of the sky, its head looking like a burst watermelon! How did that monkey move so fast?!

"Eachpe, no!"

The daik commander grunts in frustration before putting up a hand and firing an energy blast; his three comrades do the same, and Bardock is assaulted from all sides by the orbs of explosive light. He's lucky enough to notice the saiyan manage to dodge at the very last second, before the explosion obscures the area.

"Ah, damn it! Where the heck did he go?!"

"He can't hide forevah, baws - huh?!"

The slugemon gags as the saiyan wraps his arms around his shoulders, putting him in a Full Nelson while also crushing his neck. He releases a good amount of energy into his aura… it catches someone's attention.

"H-Bardock?! Ah, there you are! Die, you fool!"

Unfortunately for the daik, the blast fires releases illuminates the body enough for him to see that oops, he just shot and killed his slugemon trooper. The smoking body plummets while Bardock vanishes back into the smoke.

"Oh, no… what've I done? Damn it!"

The only other fighter still in the battle, the meian comments over the Scouter. "That was an ingenious move! He's no slouch; better watch out!"

"HE'S JUST A LOW LEVEL, WE'RE THE ELITES! GET HIM!"

As he says this Bardock blitzes out of the cloud, dashing towards the meian opponent with a raised fist.

"HUUUUAUAUAAAGGH-*gack!*"

"See the horror of your end, just like we HAD TO!"

Bardock freezes in mid-air as the threat once again rings through his mind; almost knocking him clean out. Glimpses of a world yet to come once again flicker through his mind. His vision goes black, but he struggles through it, fighting to stay conscious against the psychic wave of pain.

"Kaioken Attack!"

"Not bad, Kakarotto… for a low-level!"

"NO!"

He forces himself back into full consciousness, writhing strength he didn't know he had. The meian holding him in a Full Nelson of his own squawks as his catch flips upside-down and puts him right in the path of his commander's approaching fist. A sickening crunch rings out.

"Dole, mo-!"

The stammering daik is cut off by a whirlwind kick to the head. He is knocked out almost instantly, before Bardock hits him with an overhead hammer fist and slams him to the ground ten meters below.

"DIIIIIIE!" he screeches as he rams into the poor guy's torso at hundreds of miles per hour; his feet crush the armor under them and start to embed themselves in his chestmeat before starting to curbstomp the living shit out of him. By the time he's done, there's little left but broken armor and a puddle of fleshy goop.

"Ugh… That, was from my crew, to you."

"So these were some of Freezer's 'elites', huh? I can see why he might be getting worried."

As his rage fades, he can feel his strength go with it; his consciousness suddenly fizzles and his body feels ten times heavier. Pushing through that psychic overload didn't leave him unscathed, on the inside. He pants as the sound of plodding footsteps sounds out behind him; he turns around.

"Mmm… unfortunate business, isn't it Bardock?"

"Damn right; unfortunate for you, Dodoria! Tora told me that you're behind this!"

"Oh, he was alive? I must be worse at counting corpses than I thought."

"ALLOW ME TO HELP WITH THAT BY REDUCING YOUR LIFE POINTS TO ZERO!"

Dodoria simply stands still, sucking in a deep breath. His muscles inflate as Bardock rushes forwards, and slams his fist into his gut with every ounce of strength he can muster. Dodoria's eyes widen in surprise - that hurt. Bardock's also widen. He's… still standing. The pink brute snarls before smirking, and pops open his mouth.

"BooOOAOOUUUAUUUUUUUGHHHH!"

And even though he managed to pull through that previous psychic stroke, the world floods with light for a split second before goes black once again…

"Kakarotto… you are the last of the saiyan race… you must… be the one to defeat Freezer!"

Freezer's Throne Room: Several Hours Later

"Mission accomplished, sire!"

"Oh, really? You sound so sure of yourself, Dodoria."

Dodoria blinks; Freezer's tone is rather cold. And he does not like how it is directed at him.

"Once again, you botched it up."

"I did not, ZARBON!"

"You missed one; the leader, Bardock. He's still alive."

"You're wrong! I saw him die!"

"Then what's that then?!" Zarbon shouts as he points at the detector; and a certain something is speeding towards Planet Vegeta.

"Huh?! A space pod! I don't believe it, how could he have survived that?!"

"Dodoria!," Freezer snaps. "Perhaps this will teach you to not take things for granted! To be more thorough in your work!"

"Lord Freezer, forgive me. Please, sire! Let me go now! Bardock, he's dead! I'll be–"

"YOU WILL BE QUIET, DODORIA! YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE! There's no need to chase after that single bee, anymore~. He's heading right back to the doomed hive!"

Zarbon speaks, as Dodoria is busy groveling at his emperor's feet. "Yes, I see! It is time to extinguish the whole lot of them, then?"

"That's right! You guessed it, Zarbon. As soon as we run one more check to make sure the saiyan spaceports are downed, we'll pull up the weeds by the roots!"