Prologue – Years on Foreign Soil

I guess our timelines differ quite a bit, huh?

I mean, if what you're telling me is even remarkably close to the truth, then – once I turned Super Saiyan – I defeated Frieza and made my escape just before Namek detonated in on itself. Which, correct me here, only happened because Frieza made one last desperate bit for victory?

That it? Yup. I don't buy it. Not at all.

If only things had been that clear-cut and smooth. Look, I get it. I do. I can see the resemblance. You look a lot like Vegeta, Trunks. A lot. It's uncanny! I feel the urge to hurt you rising within me! But he died here. I know he did. Trust me, I know. He died. And after everything he did… all the people he killed… he won't be brought back. Not now. Not ever.

So – and Bulma really is the one you should be talking to about this, but I'll try my best to make sense of it – if you're not going to exist in this world… which you won't – at least not in the same way and with the same genetic make-up… then it stands to reason that things could differ here in an endless amount of ways, right? We agree on that? Just the fact that you traveled here and succeeded, when it is obvious that that never happened in your timeline, should tell us something.

I mean – follow my train of thought for a moment, please. You've traveled across a beam – a rift in reality itself – that holds the key to eternity – you might even have glimpsed it, man. And as you glided there aside dimensions of space and time… untouched… You could theoretically have had an effect on everything. Or nothing at all. Who's to say that there even is one single world resembling this one? Or yours for that matter?

Who's to say I – or even any other version of me – would even catch this deadly virus you claim will take my life in a couple of years?

You claim that Frieza's only relation were his father where you're from. I'm telling you in our world… universe or time or however you wanna… quantify it, I guess? He had a brother, too. His name was Cooler. Man… Talking about sibling rivalry. I'm telling you I have never witnessed hatred that ran that deep. And their father – you're telling me he's weaker than Frieza? No. Not here – he's the monster in charge. He played them out against each other. Provided them with armies to play with… countless men forced to die in the midst of their petty schemes and riots against one another. So much blood… Namek ran wild in rivers of crimson sin by the end of it all. We almost turned color blind to the sight of blood… in the end we had to. Get use to it, I mean.

It was like a sickness you slowly became immune for.

And I've seen him, you know. Once. King Cold. From across planets. I didn't see him with my eyes, I saw him with my heart as we passed him by in an ocean of stars. I felt – him.

And androids. You're talking about androids? Fuck them! Fuck the future, Trunks! The past isn't over! He's still out there. King Cold is still out there. He will come for us. For me. Long before whatever disease I'll catch may get me.

We were on Namek for years – not days as you claim. Years where our friends were left waiting either in the limbo of afterlife or on Earth, waiting for us to come through for them, waiting for us to get back to them, to resume some semblance of normalcy.

Waiting for us to liberate the entire universe from the hands of the Cold family.

We got back all right. But we haven't accomplished anything. Even me – and with all the power this form provided for me – the only victory I could achieve was a temporary armistice.

I'll keep your medicine on the off chance that you might be right about this, at least, and I'll urge you to join forces with us in the upcoming battle – whatever that battle may be – but you might find that your power has been… severely limited by coming here.

You see, Trunks, you claim to have achieved the power of a Super Saiyan – that where you're from every Saiyan with enough power and incentive could theoretically achieve it.

That makes no sense.

If that had been the case, if that kind of power was within the reach of every single Saiyan, then it wouldn't have taken a race as battle crazy, as battle experienced, and as filled with bloodlust as ours a thousand years to achieve it. The form would have been everywhere – throughout our history. In clear sight and abundance. And the Saiyans – not the Cold family – would have ruled the universe with our vile temper and fragile pride.

You can't transform here. Believe me. Try it if you don't. Neither can Gohan. I spent years on Namek trying to teach it to him. Years. He got more powerful than I was when I first transformed. It didn't make a damn difference. And I can't escape this form whenever it is convenient, either. This is my form now. This is how I look. I can't shift back and forth at will. I'm a blondie now, as Bulma put it.

My Nimbus won't carry me anymore. The Saiyan I'd long forgotten was awoken – and it tainted my once pure heart. There's a constant struggle within me now.

Chichi didn't like it, either. Granted that was not the only thing she didn't like. Perhaps it was even the thing she least didn't like. If you can put it that way.

Power is finite, as it should be. Limits do exist – as they must. Just not for a Super Saiyan. And such power mustn't flow freely through multiple of souls. It mustn't. Only catastrophe and awry ambition ensues.

It belongs to me this power now. For better or worse. For the first time in a millennium, the legend has arisen.

I have ascended past all strings. I have peeked beyond perceived limits to a world beyond. A world unbound. And I am the one that comes whenever a living soul cries out for peace. I am the light in the universe. The light in the eternal darkness.

I am Son Goku, the Saiyan from Earth. I am legend made real.

I am… the Legendary Super Saiyan.

Hello Folks!

This is the prologue to a new Dragon Ball story of mine. It is, as you can probably already guess, heavily AU. Differences will, if I do it right, be revealed as the story goes on. But it follows the story of the original Dragon Ball story until the Namek Saga, where it differs in certain ways. From here I will take certain liberties with the Dragon Ball lore - as will also become clear hopefully. Take it for fresh spin and see where it goes.

If you've read this far, then I thank you. And I hope to see you soon for the first chapter in War Springs Eternal.

Oh, and just to be sure - I don't know if this is still a thing? - I don't own any shred of Dragon Ball. There. That should do it.

See ya.