Summary: Vegeta reawakened in a healing tank on one of Freeza's outposts. If he wasn't feeling so vengeful by the moment of his return, all this extra power would most certainly have gone to his head. But this time, they had a mission to accomplish. And they couldn't afford to fail. Time Travel AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, or Dragon Ball Super.

Chapter I: The Prince Rises

When the Prince of Saiyans awoke again, he was sore all over. While this wasn't necessarily an uncommon occurrence, he couldn't help but wonder what period he could have come back to if he was feeling this way already. The process of lifting his heavy eyelids was slow going, but as his dark eyes surveyed his surroundings, he began to gather an awareness of his current circumstances.

He was in a technologically advanced room. Capsule Corp? No, definitely not, he decided, as he took note of the healing tank he was currently in. Bulma had never felt the need to rely on that kind of technology, what with Kakarott having ready access to the far more practical Senzu Beans. So, he wasn't on earth.

Where had that blasted dragon sent him?

Vegeta resisted the reflexive urge to blow up the healing tank to alleviate his frustration. He calmed his mind and began to think. First, assess the situation. What time period was he in? That would be easy enough to investigate. In fact, there was no need for investigation at all. He felt for his own ki, trying to get a read on how high his power was currently, and was shocked.

He was as weak as he had been when he'd first set foot on Namek!

Just how far back had he gone? Was this his period of recovery after his first arrival on earth, during which he'd been forced to retreat? If so, then Freeza was currently on his way to Namek on a quest for immortality, and Gohan was on his way there along with the bald one and—

Bulma.

This time, he blew up the tank with zero hesitation. He quickly donned his old set of armor, which had been laid out for him, and made his way out into the hall. He was pretty much healed anyway.

"Vegeta!" came an annoyingly familiar voice that he had long forgotten.

He sighed. Not this shit again. He resolved to ignore this new headache and keep walking, but the fish faced bastard cut in front of him.

"What's the rush, Vegeta? Off to Namek are we?" Cui asked with a smug smirk.

"Yes, actually. Now move."

The smile dropped from his face. "Admitting it that easily? You'd think you'd be a little more discrete about betraying Freeza."

"As much as I'd love to have this conversation, I need to go kill Freeza now. Move or die."

"What!? You can't be serious! You're not actually stupid enough to—"

Cui never finished his sentence, seeing as Vegeta chose that moment to incinerate him with a ki blast.

Pathetic, he thought as he kept walking. As he made his way out, he felt for the well of energy that had been present within him for so many years now.

It wasn't there.

Ok, so he couldn't go Super Saiyan. What about…?

He closed his eyes and concentrated, before opening them and grunting. His godly ki was gone too. He was going to have his work cut out for him to gain his full strength back. All he had left was his knowledge and his perfect ki control, as well as…

Briefly closing his eyes in meditation, he smirked. His Ultra Instinct was unaffected.

Oh, this would be fun. Soon he was at his pod and setting the coordinates for Namek. Either because they had witnessed him kill one of Freeza's elites or because they hadn't, no one tried to stop him.

When Vegeta's pod entered Namek's atmosphere, he immediately suppressed his ki completely. As much as he'd like to go straight for Freeza, it would be better to get a feel for his old body first, to be sure that his power was high enough. So, as much as it nauseated him, he'd play it safe for now and work his way up.

As his pod descended, his senses caught several distinct ki signatures. Disregarding the cannon fodder soldiers and weakling Namekians scattered around the planet, Freeza, Zarbon, and Dodoria were easily recognized. He also sensed Gohan and the bald one briefly before their signatures were promptly suppressed, no doubt in response to seeing his pod enter the planet's atmosphere. But the one he was looking for didn't know how to suppress their ki.

Bulma.

He let her familiar ki wash over him, content to know that at least she was safe for now, before pinpointing her location and taking note of where he would no doubt find the other two should he need to.

But what puzzled him was another ki far off in the middle of nowhere. Other than Freeza's, it was the highest on the planet right now. He was annoyed to realize it was actually higher than his own at the moment. Who could that belong to?

A memory tugged at his consciousness. Piccolo...he had fused with another Namekian on Namek, hadn't he? That was how he'd fought on par with Freeza's second form. Was this the very same Namekian he'd fused with?

Well, not that it mattered at the moment. As he got out of his pod, a smile crept its way onto his face.

The game had begun.

"K-Krillin?" Gohan stuttered. "Who was that?"

"I don't know, Gohan," Krillin replied. "It was a saiyan space pod, but whoever was in it, I couldn't feel their ki."

"Is it possible that they were suppressing it?" Gohan asked.

"I thought this crowd didn't know how," Krillin lamented. "But whether it's possible or not, it's happening. We'll have to be careful from now on."

"Right!"

"Hey, you two!"

Vegeta was sitting on the ground meditating when he felt the ki signatures of Gohan and Krillin spike for the briefest of moments before disappearing again. Deciding they had simply been taking out some small fry, he ignored it.

Focusing intently on what he knew of Freeza's full power at this time, he focused his thoughts inward and visualized how a fight between the two of them would go as of now. A bead of sweat started dripping down his face as the imaginary battle dragged on, and eventually ended with the lizard tyrant pinning him down and gutting him.

Vegeta opened his eyes and cursed. Even with his perfect ki control, Freeza's final form would simply be too much for this untrained body. He would have to be smart about this. Closing his eyes again, he continued to meditate, keeping his ki suppressed while he waited for the right moment to strike. A couple hours later, his eyes shot open.

Gohan was trembling in rage against his will. He and Krillin currently lay prone over a cliff face, watching the space tyrant known as Freeza strongarm a group of peaceful Namekians. He and his followers already had four Dragon Balls, and at the rate this encounter was going, they would soon have a fifth, with or without the Namekians' compliance.

Hope had sparked within them when three Namekian warriors had arrived, but though they were more than a match for the foot soldiers, Freeza's two elites had crushed them easily. They only good thing that had come out of all this was the loss of the enemy's scouters.

Gohan could only watch in dismay as the elder finally agreed to hand over the Dragon Ball in exchange for the children's lives. His dread grew as Freeza demanded to know where the next village was. The elder, not willing to sell out so many lives, could only refuse.

Gohan knew they had to intervene. The Dragon Balls were one thing, but the couldn't just sit around and let these monsters slaughter children!

"Krillin!" he whispered urgently.

"I know. Let's go," the bald monk replied.

Just as they were about to move, however, the most unexpected thing happened, fast enough that they were left wondering if it had happened at all.

Gohan and Krillin barely had time to register the new ki that had just spiked before a figure dove out of the sky and blasted the pink, spiky headed one.

"Tough luck, Dodoria!" the newcomer shouted, before swooping down and grabbing the Dragon Ball that the downed elite had been holding, and flying off.

Gohan and Krillin trembled as they felt Dodoria's ki disappear. The monster that had just killed off the Namekian warriors like they were nothing had just been killed, in turn, with a single attack. And they both knew who it was that had done the deed. The ki, the face, the voice, they had recognized them all.

Freeza and his remaining follower could barely get over their shock enough to form a coherent sentence, and were slow to react to the current circumstances. Seeing Dodoria's corpse seemed to break them out of their daze, however.

"Zarbon! After him, now!" Freeza shouted, losing his composure for the first time on this planet.

"Gohan, the Namekians!" Krillin shouted.

As swift as they could, the two swept down, taking advantage of the confusion, and grabbed the children.

"Follow us!" Krillin shouted at the stunned elder.

Zarbon looked like he was about to react, but Freeza dissuaded him.

"Ignore it! Vegeta has the Dragon Ball! Find him before he escapes!" the tyrant commanded.

Zarbon took off after Vegeta, leaving Gohan, Krillin, and Elder Moori time to get away. Thankfully, Freeza acted as if they weren't even there, having lost interest in the Namekians as he stared after Vegeta with a thoughtful frown.

Vegeta smirked as he felt Zarbon's ki follow after him. With the wind rushing past him as he flew through the green sky, a sudden sense of peace washed over him.

He was back. He was really back. So many opportunities...but first, he had to deal with the lizard tyrant on the top of his shit list. Meditation had allowed him to raise his power, but not by much. There was only so much he could do without training. Luckily, his body seemed to be adjusting to the new soul that inhabited it. As he deliberately slowed down to allow Zarbon to get closer, the nostalgia of it all hit him.

Oh, but how differently this fight would turn out.

He was getting that old familiar feeling. The one he had long since learned to squash whenever it rose up within him, living a better, fulfilling life on earth as he had been for years. Out of necessity, out of respect, and, dare he say it, out of the morality he had developed.

But no matter how far a killer strays from the path of bloodshed, they can never really forget it. The beast never truly becomes tame.

"Is something funny, Vegeta?" Zarbon asked with a condescending air about him as he flew in next to the saiyan prince and saw the smirk on his face, which widened when Vegeta noticed him eying the Dragon Ball in his hand.

"Hilarious, actually. I can't believe you really followed me. Do you have no self preservation instincts?"

Zarbon smiled in amusement. "I should be asking you that. Though, I can't really complain. I've wanted to put an end to you and your monkey pride for a while now. As it happens, your pathetic little rebellion has given me the perfect opportunity."

"Zarbon, the only opportunity that just opened up for you is a free, one way ticket to Otherworld. And let me tell you firsthand...it's going to suck."

Zarbon snarled. "You think just because you blindsided Dodoria that you can win this fight? Vegeta, you have no idea what you're dealing wi—"

He cut off as blood erupted from his mouth, and looked down in horror at Vegeta's fist, which as ruthlessly implanted deep into his stomach.

"Goodbye," Vegeta whispered tauntingly, before blowing a hole clean through Zarbon with a large ki blast, vaporizing his insides in the process. The elite's corpse fell quietly into the ocean below.

"All too easy." He looked off into the distance thoughtfully and smiled. "Maybe I'll just drop in quickly."

Krillin suppressed a shiver as he felt the remaining elite's ki disappear. Vegeta was ruthless, as always.

"Everyone, suppress your ki," he instructed. Gohan and the three Namekians did as they were told. "Is everyone ok?" he asked once he couldn't sense them anymore.

"Yes, we're fine," Elder Moori stated, even as he mourned the loss of the other Namekians. "We can't thank you enough, whoever you are."

"It's no problem," Gohan said with a friendly smile, though there was still a bead of sweat rolling down his face from the experience. "We're from planet Earth, by the way."

"Earth? Must be far from here...I've never heard of it before," Moori commented. "Did you come for use of the Dragon Balls as well?"

"Yeah, that's right," Krillin answered. "We had a set on our planet, but the Namekian who created them passed away."

Moori looked surprised. "A Namekian on your planet? And he created a set of Dragon Balls?"

"Yeah. He was the guardian of our planet until he died. We planned on coming here to request use of yours, to wish some friends of our back to life, but then we found those guys here."

Moori nodded solemnly. "Yes, those monsters have been ravaging our planet for some time now, moving from village to village in search of the Dragon Balls. There was nothing we could do in the face of such monstrous power. Especially their leader…"

"Freeza, right? To be honest, I have no idea what we're going to do about him," Krillin admitted. "And then there's Vegeta. He's going to be a huge problem too. I just felt his ki spike, and he's far stronger than he was when we fought him. We should lay low, for now."

"I agree," Moori said with a nod.

"So should we go back to the cave now to meet with Bulma?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," Krillin said. Suddenly, his head perked up, and after a moment, his eyes widened. "Oh no…"

"What is it?" Gohan asked worriedly.

"It's Vegeta! He's near Bulma, and getting closer!"

Gohan gasped. "He must have found her ki with a scouter! We have to go!"

To their credit, the Namekians didn't question them, opting to fly after the two without a word.

Bulma was pissed. Since they'd landed on Namek, their ship had been destroyed, stranding them on the planet, they'd had to walk for miles to get to some random cave to hide, and now she'd been left in said random cave, alone, because apparently it was too dangerous for her to come along.

Fuck that! She was on an alien planet! She didn't want to stay in a cave, she could stay in caves on earth! Not that she ever would...

She was interrupted from her musings when the doorbell to the capsule house rang. She jumped to her feet. "Finally! Took them long enough!"

When she opened the door though, it wasn't Krillin or Gohan.

Staring back at her with a piercing gaze was Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince.

Bulma screamed.