Homecoming
Planet Vegeta slowly grew closer in the spaceship. For a moment, Bardock admired the view of his home, then he noticed the ominous moon hovering above it.
"Freeza's spaceship," he said.
"What the hell's going on?" his partner said beside him. "Granted, this is just the thing that Freeza bastard would pull."
"Take off your scouter," he reminded him. "They can hear you."
"Oh, dang it."
"Looks like this asshole really is planning something..." Bardock said to himself.
A few days ago they were in the middle of conquering Planet Gossamer when they received an order to evacuate and return to their home planet.
They reached the planet proper and descended to the surface.
"Yo, Bardock!" another Saiyan greeted them as they got off the ship. "Good to see you're still alive and kicking."
"Hey, do you happen to know why they ordered us to come back?"
"Who knows, they probably found a good planet and needed actual fighters."
"I see," Bardock simply said while his partner and the other Saiyan laughed.
"Oh, by the way, I heard the Freeza Army guys have been talking a lot about the Super Saiyan."
"Super Saiyan?" he raised an eyebrow. "You mean the legendary Super Saiyan?"
…...
The village was exactly as he remembered. Even after three years away the stone huts covered in holes for light had remained the same. The only difference was there were far more people, and the frenzy of activity.
"Ah, welcome back, Bardock!" someone called.
"Hello," he waved, reaching his destination.
"Yo, I'm back, Gine," he said to the slim woman with the shaggy hair butchering meat.
"Bardock!" she ran to embrace him. He remembered when she was part of his team, the rare Saiyan who didn't like fighting; after saving her so many times she'd finally left for the meat distribution plant, but they hadn't left each other.
"The town's pretty lively," he commented.
"Yeah, there's going to be a festival because everyone's back!" she let go of him to gesture excitedly.
"Sounds fun," he looked around. "Where's Raditz?"
"He's a soldier now. He's partnered with Prince Vegeta and is off on a planet somewhere," she informed him. "Apparently it's really far, that's why he hasn't returned yet."
"Prince Vegeta, huh?" he chuckled. "Raditz got the short end of the stick."
"He did," Gine nodded. "Do you want to see Kakarot? I'm going to take him off the incubator soon."
She took him deeper into the house to the incubator and the mini-Bardock inside it sleeping peacefully.
"He's grown."
"And he looks exactly like you," the woman grinned. "Especially with that crazy hairdo."
Bardock didn't speak. He looked at his second son and thought to the strangeness of Freeza's orders, as well as the feeling of approaching death he couldn't shake.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"After nightfall I'm stealing a capsule pod," he told her, making up his mind. "We're sending Kakarot to another planet."
"What?!" Gine protested. "What would make you want to do such a thing?! Kakarot is not going to be a Rocket Baby!"
"It's for his safety."
"W-What,,,?" she asked, her anger vanishing. "What do you mean?"
"Freeza -"
"Mom! Dad!"
"Raditz!" the woman ran to meet her son and hugged him. "You're finally here!"
"Prince Vegeta didn't want to come," he told them. "But the king sent him a message and we quickly came back.
"Dad! How was your mission?"
"It was good," he said weakly, trying to get over his shock. One kid we could smuggle off the planet, but both? That's not an option anymore, what... he recalled his son's words. A message from King Vegeta...
A/N: I started writing this story a long time ago, but things happened and I couldn't continue it. Now that I finally have time to waste again I decided to tackle it again.
This story will combine both Dragon Ball Minus and The Father of Goku, along with my own twists and ideas.
Finally, sorry about this chapter being a retread of Minus. I needed to show how it diverges from the original story (Raditz making it to the planet and Bardock's plan going to hell) so I had to borrow from it. Starting next chapter it gets more original, promise.