Nine months and two weeks after Raditz and Kakarrot arrive on Planet FX-50/Earth

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He managed to land his ship in a small clearing, a few miles away from where the signal was coming from. The surrounding jungle would keep his craft hidden from the locals and, besides, he didn't want to scare off his sons. They were probably pretty skittish after so many years of being chased, and his ship was one they'd captured off of Frieza's men a few months back. He grinned at the memory. That had been a good fight. Lifting off into the sky, Bardock suppressed his power level (a trick he'd picked up from Paragus's boy, and which had turned out to be very useful in events of diplomacy), just in case.

Tracking the homing signal, he landed in front of a small, isolated dwelling that looked like it had been dropped in the center of an over-grown crater. It was an odd combination of rickety, weathered pieces and new, sturdier looking sections. Beyond it a short ways was another dwelling, smooth, white, and domed. And beyond that… it was mostly hidden by vegetation, and had obviously been painted at some point and repaired and modified at many more points, but he was almost positive that that was the ship he'd sent his sons off in so many years ago.

Standing in front of the first house, he hesitated a moment, then approached it. Much as he would rather have approached the ship, the signal was coming from the first building. He hesitated again before the doorway before scolding himself for being unsaiyan, straightening his shoulders, and knocking on the slightly lopsided door. There was a rustling inside, and then the door swung open.

"Hey, Raditz, back at las-" a pair of coal black eyes blinked at Bardock in surprise. "You… are not Raditz. But damn if you don't look like Kakarrot!"

Bardock stared at the young man in front of him for a moment, his mouth hanging open slightly, at a complete loss for words. His first thought was 'oh thank the gods, Tarble finally grew more.' Which didn't make any sense, because Tarble was back at the base ship being diplomatic and have Broly trail after him, and, besides, he wasn't due for his second spurt for at least two more years. But that face, that royal's point, that hair. There was only one other person this could possibly be-

"Prince… V-Vegeta?" the scarred saiyan finally managed to gasp out. This didn't make sense. The crown prince's death had been what spurred Bardock to look more closely at what Frieza was doing to his people a bit over fifteen years ago now. If other saiyans hadn't also suspected foul play in the prince's death, he highly doubted anyone would ever have listened to his suspicions, let alone followed him.

"Um… I just go by 'Geta,' generally?" Prince Vegeta rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and his tail slipped around his waist. "I still wasn't entirely sure I believed Raditz about the 'prince' thing. Though this whole independent verification thing is making it start to sound kinda really convincing. Um…" he shifted his weight awkwardly from foot to foot. "I guess this means you're saiyan, right? I mean, unless there's another race out there with, you know, the hair. And the tails. And stuff. Yeah."

Bardock nodded mutely, then several things Prince Vegeta had said finally registered and his mouth opened without consulting his brain. "Wait, you know my children?!"

"You're Raditz and Kakarrot's dad?!" the shorter saiyan gaped at him, "Well, that explains the resemblance, but I thought you were supposed to be dead!"

"So were you!"

"Yeah, Raditz mentioned that. Actually, he reacted about the same way you've been when we first met." The prince scratched an ear, embarrassed. "Apparently I didn't so much die, per se, as fall prey to a technical malfunction that gave me amnesia and crash-landed me on this planet. Which actually has worked out pretty well for me, for the most part. No, wait, that's not important-" he finally got a more focussed expression and frowned, sticking a finger in Bardock's face, other hand on his hip. "How the hell did you survive some psycho lizard-man blowing up the planet you were on?! People survive technical malfunctions all the time – exploding planets are a little different!"

Bardock snorted. He couldn't help it – the presumed-dead prince looked so much like his younger brother, all righteously indignant and short. "I was already off planet when it happened."

"Oh." Prince Vegeta considered this. "That does make more sense. Want to come in? Raditz went to town to buy a few things and drop off some blueprints, and Kakarrot went with him in an attempt to flirt with some girl again. Well, the same girl he's been flirting with for a few months now. It's not working well; he blames Raditz. But, yeah, they should be back soon, depending on how much longer it takes the girl to punch Kakarrot."

Bardock blinked. Apparently his sons hadn't just been hiding out in the time it took him to find out they were safe and get here. "All right."

"Great!" Vegeta – it was getting harder and harder to think of him as a prince, he was just so… unlike he had been as a child – beamed, and stepped out of his doorway to let Bardock come in. "I've got tea. But not much food – I was actually getting ready to go hunt or grab an egg or something, but that can wait, this won't take long. I think."

Bardock followed Geta into his strange house, which turned out to be a large single room with a half loft. A small table with several assorted chairs stood by one of the windows, and a counter and a number of cupboards had been built into the opposite wall. And, in the far corner-

"Is… that an old attack pod?" Bardock asked. For there was indeed what appeared to be an open attack pod embedded in the floor of the house – in fact, now that he looked closer, it appeared the house had been built around the pod. It was filled with blankets and cushions, and looked surprisingly inviting.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I think so? That's what Raditz called it. I've always called it my nest – I was in it when I woke up, and I've pretty much always slept there. When I was little, I hoped that whoever had misplaced me would be able to find me again if I stayed near it." He glanced at Bardock and laughed, "Guess it worked – twice now, actually."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Vegeta apparently ran out of things to say at that point, and started fiddling around with cups and a small jar of something, glancing at Bardock over his shoulder every now and then, and it suddenly struck Bardock that the rightful crown prince, who had had the highest power level at birth ever (prior to Broly), was nervous. Bardock frowned, puzzled, and tapped his scouter to take a power reading. He was just getting over his surprise at said reading when Vegeta glanced at him sharply.

"That's not going to be accurate."

Bardock looked at him, confused. "What?"

"Your scouter," he gestured with one hand, "It's not going to give you an accurate reading. My ki's suppressed right now. But if it wasn't, it'd be about, I dunno half-ish of what yours is? Maybe a third? You know, assuming that was you I felt earlier – and I'm hoping it was, otherwise we could all be in trouble. But it was probably you – it felt like you, now that I've met you."

The scarred saiyan hadn't quite figured out how to phrase the questions this statement created – or which one to ask first – when Vegeta's head snapped up and turned towards the door, relief filling his expression. "Oh thank kami, they're back!" and he darted through the door.

Bardock got up and followed him, though only as far as the doorway – certain habits got engrained after you'd been fighting in a rebellion for awhile, and keeping an eye out for ambushes was one of them – and watched as Vegeta hopped up to wave at someone, landing on the ground again to wait for them. A moment later, a man who by that hair could only be Raditz landed with an alien who, were it not for her odd hair and eyes, could have passed for a tail-less saiyan, in his arms and a boy who must be Kakarrot close on his heels, all of them dressed in strange clothes.

"Hi, Geta," the woman smiled at the prince, then frowned as he darted up to her, then past and behind her. "Geta, what the hell are you doing?"

"Allowing the focus of conversation to shift to someone else by taking myself out of direct line of sight." Came the matter-of-fact response from behind her.

"Conversation? Who were you talking-"

"Raditz? Kakarrot?" Bardock finally found his voice and was able to call attention to himself from where he still stood partially in the shadows of the doorway, moving forward as he did so. He watched as Kakarrot turned to him, blinked, and vanished into the vast mane Raditz's unruly mop had grown into over the years. Raditz himself was staring at Bardock, his face grey.

"Father?"

Bardock swallowed, his eyes feeling suspiciously hot, "Raditz? I- sweet Kido's breasts, I-"

Over fourteen years he'd been dreaming of this moment. Over fourteen years, and now it was here, he couldn't move, not even to wipe at his eyes. He had a reputation for being fearless, for always having a plan, for having the devil's own luck, but none of it applied here. His luck had failed – he'd thought he'd be able to rendezvous with his sons in a year or two, three at the most, after he sent them off, by which time Frieza would have lost interest in stragglers as the Resistance became more troublesome, but the old lizard had been relentless, forcing the boys farther and farther away from possible rescue or aid as he hunted them. His plans had failed – Frieza had been determined to eradicate every last trace of the saiyan race, no matter how insignificant they were, and he saw two children slipping through his net as a personal insult instead of insignificant, the way he should have.

And now his courage failed him as he stared at his eldest son, a grown man, unable to move or speak, able only to watch as Raditz walked towards him, expression unreadable. He stopped a foot or so away, looking Bardock over, arms folded.

"You haven't changed much."

Bardock swallowed and purposefully did not draw attention to his eyes by wiping at them. "You have. I'd barely recognise you if it weren't for that hair of yours. I would never have expected you to get so tall."

"Heh, yeah." The taller saiyan smirked for a moment, then his expression grew serious again. They stared at each other for a moment, uncertain how to continue. Finally, Raditz growled something that sounded suspiciously like 'to hell with it,' stepped forward, and grabbed Bardock in a rough embrace. "I don't care how unsaiyan it is, you bastard, I missed you."

Bardock froze for a moment, then reached up to grab his son's shoulders, returning the embrace. A moment later he yelped and snatched his hand back, dragging an angry young saiyan with it.

Raditz laughed, a wicked gleam in his eye. "Oh, right, I forgot to mention, I taught Kakarrot to hide in there when we encounter strangers. Watch out, he bites."

"No shit!" Bardock shook his hand, trying to dislodge his growling youngest son.

Smirking, Raditz grabbed his brother by the back of his neck. "Get off, brat – that's our father you're biting."

"I know!" Kakarrot released his grip to snap, allowing Bardock to snatch back his bleeding hand. Kakarrot glared at him. "He left us! Lemme go so I can bite him again!"

Bardock laughed even as he pulled off one of his wrist warmers to press on the wound. "Well, I can see your brother did a good job raising you! Hand him here."

Raditz raised an eyebrow at him, but complied. Kakarrot squirmed and glared, but Bardock held him tightly around the waist and he couldn't wriggle free or bite him again. Finally, he settled for folding his arms and scowling at Bardock, his tail lashing angrily behind him.

"You left. You sent us away."

"I had to, brat." Bardock's voice was soft but firm. "I didn't know how many of us would escape and, gods help me, I wanted you two to live. I've been keeping track of you as best I could."

"You knew where we were and didn't come for us?!" Kakarrot sounded appalled.

"And alert Frieza to the fact that you two were more than a couple random brats trying to escape in the chaos? No," he shook his head, "He'd have chased you harder than ever if he'd known you were mine, and I doubt you'd have been able to ever shake him long enough for me to get to you. And if that had been the case, I think I would have been so insufferable that Paragus would have actually tried to kill me. Mind you," he tucked the boy under one arm so he could hold his chin in a considering pose, "Frieza would probably be dead by now if that was the case, so maybe I should have."

Kakarrot gaped up at him. "You're evil! Just like Raditz!"

"He is our father," Raditz grinned, ruffling his brother's hair, "I got it honestly."

"Oh." Kakarrot blinked. "I guess that makes sense." Then he scowled at his father. "You're not allowed to send us off again!"

Bardock smirked at him. "I thought you would have wanted me to leave – you don't seem to like me much."

"NO WAY!" Kakarrot squirmed so he was clutching Bardock's hip with his arms and had his tail wrapped around Bardock's upper arm. "I'll bite you if you leave." He gave an upside-down glare.

Bardock laughed. "I thought you were going to bite me anyway."

"I'll bite you worse if you leave!"

"Wow, saiyans really are all crazy."

The scarred saiyan turned to the blue-haired woman who had just spoken. He had forgotten about her and the prince – and part of him was still stunned over that – in his delight at finding his sons again. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm Bulma Briefs – call me Bulma – and I assume you're Bardock? Raditz has mentioned you."

"She's gonna be Geta's mate when he finishes his second spurt!" Kakarrot chirped cheerfully, to the prince's obvious mortification and Bulma's indignation.

"So, Paragus is another saiyan, right?" Vegeta changed the subject with more terror than tact. At Bardock's nod, he cheered up. "That's great! Hear that, Raditz? Now there's five of us!"

It was Bardock's turn to look stunned. "Five? Raditz, don't you know about the Resistance? I mean, I thought you did when I saw-" he gestured at the red band on Raditz's left arm, a darker red than his own headband. Raditz touched it self-consciously.

"This was for you. Because you always wore those stupid wrist and leg things – which I see you still do. And you've added a bandana to the outfit since. But, other than that… I've heard of a resistance against Frieza and the Colds, but it was always near where he was and I was trying to keep us where he wasn't, so I didn't hear much about it. Why? Are there more of us? How many? Twenty? Thirty?"

Bardock couldn't help grinning at his eldest son's eager expression. "This scrap of cloth," he thumbed the red strip, "Is a sign that I'm an open member of the Resistance. And there's a good number more than thirty saiyans running around messing up that lizard's business, son. A good number more than thirty."

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Several months prior to the beginning of these events…

Being the leader of an interplanetary rebellion was not an easy thing, especially when the rebels were a bunch of rowdy saiyans for whom subtlety was still a relatively new concept and who weren't exactly welcome on the majority of the planets they ended up on. Sure, things had been going better over the past few years, word was finally spreading that the saiyans weren't purging planets or working for Frieza anymore, and were in fact fighting against their old boss. This had certainly cut down on a lot of the diplomatic strain. That and the whole incident with the Aneshi - that had marked a definite improvement in their reputation.

But sacrifices still had to be made at times. Sacrifices like not being able to see your brats or even contact them for fifteen years.

Bardock sighed. It was one more thing Frieza would pay for – making a separation that should have been a couple years at the most instead stretch well over a decade. He'd missed most of Kakarrot's childhood, and both of Raditz's growth spurts. Who knew how tall the boy was now – no, not boy, man. He'd be about twenty-two by now…

The absence of his sons had been like an ache in his chest that slowly grew as time passed and Frieza's forces chased them farther and farther away from him. And if said ache had sometimes translated itself into a few discrete tears after a few too many drinks a time or two with Tora during rare lulls in activity over the years, well… that was neither here nor there. Not that there was much time for trying to drown oneself in alcohol when one was, as previously mentioned, the leader of a rather large resistance against an evil empire than spanned a good bit of the galaxy. And if Tora ever breathed a word of it, he'd gut the bastard, best friend or no.

Bardock had been keeping an ear out for his sons ever since he'd sent them off with instructions to run hard, to run far, and to not stop until they were triply sure they weren't being hunted anymore. Mostly, the news had been bad. They had been spotted here, the trail was picked up there, Frieza's forces were hot on the tails of those two brats he was obsessed with catching for some unknown reason, Frieza had finally caught them and they were dead. The last had only come up a few times, but each time it happened Bardock had been tense until word came that the brats had been spotted somewhere else and the trail picked up again. Part of him knew that the reports of their deaths were false – he was certain he'd know if they had died, the way he had when Gine… But part of him feared, each time he heard the words. And curse Frieza doubly for that, for teaching fear to him and his people.

But that was in the past now. He grinned as he plugged the coordinates into his small ship. It had been months since hide or hair was seen of the boys, and Frieza was apparently throwing a fit. They had slipped their trackers and at long last, so Bardock could do what he'd been wanting to for far too long – activate the homing device he'd secreted into the scouter he'd left Raditz before sending them off. Honestly, it was a miracle the thing was still intact and operational after so long, but it had been his only option at the time. He'd barely been able to finish getting a ship kitted out with supplies and some basic info discs before he'd had to throw the boys into it and send them off. But it had, and that was the important thing.

So he'd ruffled Broly and Tarble's hair, told Paragus to try not to break anything too badly while he was gone, and flew off to retrieve his wayward children.

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You know, looking back over it, I can't find a single place where I, the author, actually out and out said the saiyans were all dead like in the canon universe. Huh. Fancy that. Wonder if I've been planning this since the very beginning…

After this fic, the timeline's going to start getting a little more jumbled, because now I can show you some of the bits I've written for Bardock and certain members of the Resistance. I'll continue to say when various fics take place in relevance to each other. Also, while there will be sort of a 'conclusion' fic to this series, lots of scenes never got written because I wasn't interested in writing them. Ex: the final battle between the Colds and the Saiyans. This series isn't really about the fighting for me, it's about the bits that happen between. When we hit places where there's missing sections, I'll add a brief synopsis of what that section should be at the end or beginning of the segment relating to it best. Thank-you for understanding.

This is the last scene my sister started and I finished. I've edited the bits she wrote to make it fit more smoothly with the rest, but it's right after Raditz arrives that it becomes fully my writing.

Bardock in this story is a combination of his characterization in the specials, Dragon Ball Minus, and various fics I've read. So, tough, cares about his family more in general and more openly due to Gine's influence, and willing to make a stand once he realises Frieza's been playing them. It's also been close to fourteen years since he began to take his life in a different direction, so he's had time to wear off some of his rougher corners.

In this universe, Bardock and his crew never went to Kanassa, which actually meant they slid under Frieza's radar for much longer, but Prince Vegeta's disappearance acted as a similar wake-up call for Bardock as the psychic powers did, with the added benefit of not causing him to freeze up in battles while he's having a vision. I adore psychic!Bardock, but it didn't fit with the flow of this universe, so he'll have to settle for leading a pretty decent resistance, which he spearheaded due to his insight, against the tyrant that destroyed his planet and most of his race, and having most of the remainder of his race thinking he's pretty hot shit for saving their asses and being a damn good leader, and having his power level go way up because it's been fourteen-ish years and I doubt he's been slacking off on his training or fighting, and being a good enough strategist and leader that some people think you have psychic powers anyway. Sorry, Bardock. I know it's not as cool as real psychic powers, but it'll have to do.

Yeah, Broly's in the Resistance, you'll hear more about him, Tarble, and Paragus later. Dunno if Broly can actually suppress his power level in canon, but he's much weaker when powered down and, more importantly, the Legendary Super Saiyan which, in my mind, translates to 'stuffed full of all sorts of weird abilities, feel free to go nuts.'

And bullshit on saiyans having no affection for friends or family. I don't care what Toriyama says. He also says female saiyans can't go super, because they can't get angry enough. This from the guy who created Chichi and Bulma. Sorry, Toriyama, you've got some great ideas and characters, but I can't always agree with you about them.