Bardock had awoken from his nightmare, but his head throbbed persistently as he regained his bearings, taking stock of where he was – and trying to recall how he'd gotten there. (As for why he was there, thinking about it simply worsened his headache.)
Blinking the room into focus, the green healing liquid started draining from the tank at the behest of the doctors outside.
When the door opened, the physician by the controls began speaking to him right away.
"Thank goodness you're alright," the elderly man said. "You gave us a scare. Bardock... What happened?"
"I don't know," the Saiyan replied. He was no stranger to being tended to by doctors, so Bardock felt no shame as he fumbled his way out, removing the breathing apparatus from his face as he tried to shake off the odd feelings still plaguing him. Almost like a chill up his spine... or perhaps that was just because he was entirely naked and the room was a little colder than expected.
"Your clothes are over here," the doctor directed, and Bardock obeyed the gesture to retrieve the items, going slowly to readjust his muscles.
As Bardock dressed, blinking wearily through his headache, the doctor began speaking in a careful but firm fashion.
"I think it might be wise to take it easy for a while," the old man said.
"Yeah? Well, I wouldn't know about that, I'm not wise."
"You're not, eh?" the doctor echoed, clearly disapproving of Bardock's tone.
"Nope."
Choose wisely, Saiyan.
Bardock tried to shake his head free of the – nightmares? visions? – and frowned. Despite supposedly having healed, he still felt fucking awful. Perhaps the doctor had miscalculated and he hadn't been in long enough, but it didn't matter. He wasn't going back in, so he'd have to just figure something out.
"Oh, you're probably right. How else could you take on the assignments that you do and still be alive?" the doctor mused in a tone that indicated he thought Bardock a lost cause.
"I know how to fight – that's all. Doesn't take a whole lot of brains to be a great fighter," Bardock replied as he fixed his scouter on. Although that wasn't always true, army grunts were never praised for their intellectual skills.
"Hey, speaking of which, where's Tora?" he continued. Tora was usually there after Bardock's miraculous recoveries to needle him on his reckless behaviour. (It was also true when the case was vice-versa.)
"Your team was ordered to go to Planet Meat... By Frieza himself," the doctor answered.
Bardock felt his blood go cold. "What? Frieza?"
Under ordinary circumstances, the Saiyan would've been thrilled at finally earning recognition for himself and his squadron. However, the nightmares still fresh in his mind dampened whatever pride he might've felt to an uneasy pit in his stomach.
"They left without me, huh? Guess I'll have to catch up," Bardock thought aloud. Then, a moment later, he considered something.
"Before I go, you got any painkillers? My head feels like it's splitting open," he asked.
"Hm? That's odd. You should be back to one hundred percent, you healed in there long enough. Although, we did observe a change in your neural patterns..." the old man mumbled.
"My neural patterns? What does that mean?"
"Well, I can show you," the doctor said, gesturing for Bardock to approach the nearby console with him. The Saiyan obliged, eyes flicking over the electronic display before them.
"These are the scans of your brainwaves that came up while I was searching for any routine irregularities in your system," the physician explained. The images made little sense to Bardock – until the doctor pulled up a different scan next to his for comparison.
"This is how an ordinary Saiyan's brain patterns should look," the old man went on.
While the two brain structures' light oscillations did have some similarities, Bardock could easily spot the abnormalities in the exhibition of his own. His frown deepened as his dark eyes travelled over the readout.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
"It's... Well, to be honest, I've only seen this pattern once before, but it's an impossible thing, really." The old man's eyes flickered over to the opposite end of the room, where the other attendant went about his business and ignored them.
"I don't know what happened to you on – Kanassa, was it? - but the only instance I've seen patters like these... By all indications, this is the brain scan of someone with more than just latent psychic abilities. Exactly what kind of headaches are you having, Bardock?"
Bardock looked at the doctor, blinking slowly. "I don't know if you think fucking with me is funny, but I don't have time for your wacko theories."
"I'm being entirely serious. It's not as far-fetched as some people think. You must hear rumours of beings who can do more than just levitate objects. Perhaps this is the first case of a Saiyan going beyond that! I'd need more time to study you, but -"
"I already told you I don't have time," Bardock replied, but then his headache throbbed and the scene in front of him was replaced with a different one.
A baby with long black hair, whimpering as it was removed from its nursing pod. Another infant nearby screamed, and the screams were familiar. A flash of a knife. Then the image changed to a spacecraft, Frieza's spacecraft, heading for Planet Vegeta. Bardock himself, getting into an attack pod and... heading towards the ship to intercept it?
Shifting again, this time Frieza had already arrived, and Bardock himself carelessly flying into space without care for oxygen, confronting the galactic conqueror face to face. A bright flash, flames.
The hospital room came back into focus and the doctor was calling his name.
"Bardock? What is it?"
"I – I need to go," Bardock said, ignoring the doctor's questions and protests as the Saiyan turned to leave.
"Wait, you need to rest! You should stay here -" the physician tried, but Bardock had already left the room.
He moved at a brisk pace down the hall, wishing he could go faster if it weren't for the angry protests of his head for each step he took.
Winding his way through the corridors, Bardock's mind raced. He didn't know what was happening to him, why he was being subjected to whatever the hell this was. If the pain would go away for at least a minute, maybe he could think clearly.
An infant's screaming halted him in place.
Bardock followed the sound, desperately hoping that he wasn't going crazy and that the sounds were real this time. As he rounded a corner, he was rewarded with a window into the nursery, dissuading his concerns as he stopped to take a look inside.
Directly in front of him among the row of pods, a healthy baby boy was screaming itself silly from within its glass confines.
Bardock knew for sure this was the one.
The Saiyan's eyes scanned around until he found what he was looking for: the plate that bore the infant's name.
"Kakarot, huh? You've definitely got lungs on you, kid," Bardock said, looking the baby over. The adult Saiyan didn't doubt that the infant was his – their identical hairstyles were a strong indication, for starters. He idly wondered if Gine had already been here to see Kakarot again.
"I don't know how, but you can see the visions too," Bardock muttered, narrowing his brows in thought as he stared at the baby.
On a whim, he let his scouter take measure of the newborn's power level. He glanced at the numbers, half hoping and half expecting there to be something unusual – but no. Kakarot's power level was only average.
Even though Bardock himself had been born around the same measure, the man was disappointed. There was no guarantee that just because the baby shared his genetics, it would also take after him and overcome the stereotypes of their caste (and Bardock was still categorized as third-class, regardless of his potential).
Setting aside his dashed expectations, Bardock was about to leave when a small blip on his scouter drew his attention. Aside from Kakarot, the device was picking up one other power level in the vicinity, which Bardock was about ignore until a habitual glance at the numbers made him do a double-take.
His gaze flickered from the readout to the individual in question, who rested quietly in the natal pod next to Kakarot's. The other male infant was large for a newborn, with a head of long black hair, but it was neither of these still-within-ordinary qualities that held Bardock's attention.
According to the scouter, the baby held a power level on par with Bardock's own, drawing eerily close to that of King Vegeta himself.
Which was, of course, utterly ridiculous and impossible.
Damn scouter must be broken, Bardock thought as he removed it for a moment to search it for damage or anything else indicative of a problem. When nothing obvious presented itself, Bardock put it back on and looked at the baby again, confirming that it was the one from the vision he'd had minutes prior. The power level readout remained the same, dropping dramatically when he turned his head to let it focus on Kakarot, then back up again when it detected the other infant.
"Broly..." Bardock read aloud as he took notice of the plate bearing the other boy's name. The grown Saiyan had a passing curiosity toward who the parents might be, certain that they had to be elites to produce a child like this, but even that wouldn't account for a baby being already born with such incredible strength.
Even more curiously, there were no doctors around who seemed to care about such a rarity. In fact, as Bardock peeked further inside, he couldn't see anyone at all.
He wondered why – and to where – all the attendants had run off to all at once. If Broly really was as strong as the (doubtfully functional) scouter had said, there ought to be more people buzzing around, or at least one of the baby's parents come to see such a thing for themselves.
Bardock recalled the strange images he'd seen only minutes ago as Broly's softer cries joined Kakarot's loud ones.
"Why... are you doing this...?" Tora grunted from his place in the dirt, tasting blood in his mouth.
Shugesh, Fasha, and now Borgos – they were all dead. Tora himself didn't figure he was long from being at death's door, but felt no fear at that fact.
All that consumed him was confusion and rage as he stared up at the group of opposing soldiers, beings handpicked by Dodoria himself.
The large, pink creature stood both physically and mentally as the figurehead of the group, eager to dole out violence where he could. He glared down at Tora with a mixture of disdain and sadistic enjoyment.
"I... don't understand..." grunted Tora as his dark eyes met Dodoria's even darker ones.
"What don't you understand, Tora? That you are weak?" the alien mocked. "Nah, you shouldn't have forgotten that so easily."
The fuchsia behemoth then approached, taking ahold of the front of Tora's armour and hoisting the Saiyan in the air like he weighed nothing.
"Wh – what do you mean? We serve Frieza, you know that!" the injured man coughed out.
"Yes, I know," Dodoria replied, chuckling to himself. "Frieza's very impressed with your service record... Too impressed. It seems he'd prefer you dead."
Tora's mind spun through the fog of pain. "What? Why...?"
"I don't want to flatter you, but Frieza thought you were getting too strong," Dodoria explained.
"Consider this a promotion," one of the other alien soldiers added in derision, prompting a circle of laughs from the group.
"N – no... That doesn't... Everything we've done was for him! Why would he do this?" Tora reasoned.
"You fool. It's not what you've done, it's what you might have done in the future," Dodoria growled.
"Then... No one is s – safe from Frieza... Not even you..."
Dodoria only smirked at the Saiyan's comment. "Is that so?" he said before flinging Tora away.
The man landed in a broken heap, unable to rise and fight his inevitable destruction. His only thought was that Bardock, on the fluke chance of his injury, would survive – at least until he sought revenge upon his discovery of what had happened.
There was no way Bardock could accept the idea that he'd been given the power to see the future.
The doctor had said it, Kanassans were known for their psychic abilities, and Bardock had been having strange visions, to which his day-old son was somehow responding to as well.
But that didn't mean he could really see the future, did it?
Bardock had left the area near the infant care centre, intending to push all that aside so he could meet up with Tora, Fasha, Borgos, and Shugesh, who had likely almost completed the mission alone in the time it took Bardock to recover. However, he'd stopped upon reaching the transportation bay, getting the occasional stare from passerby as he remained stock-still in place.
Deep down, he knew that something inexplicable was happening out of his control. Though he wanted to pretend it was nothing, even his inability to make the final step to rejoin his comrades made evident his turmoil.
There are two rivers that diverge from this place. You have a choice to make.
The ominous words echoed in Bardock's mind. The many images he recalled being forced upon his consciousness danced behind his eyes, taunting him. His headache wailed away, assaulting every portion of his cranium that could feel pain, like it was trying to fight off the visions being unnaturally procured into his awareness.
No matter what you do, there will be sacrifice.
Should you choose to fight for another future, the darkness will remain only a shadow for years longer, but you will endure them understanding what you've done.
Choose wisely.
Bardock seated himself in the cockpit of an attack pod, knowing there was something greater at work. He couldn't deny all the factors before him, the whispers guiding him to make a decision.
Perhaps – just maybe – the Kanassan really had done something to alter Bardock's mind. Perhaps these visions weren't mere nightmares, they were warnings.
The door to the pod sealed shut with a squeal of the airlock, the computer prompting him to select a destination on manual or autopilot.
His fingers hovered over the controls, and he wondered what would happen after he chose one of the two paths his visions had showed him.
There is only one way they can be saved, Saiyan. The future is your doing and yours alone. The pendulum swings and not even Frieza can stop it – but you can change the price you pay.
Bardock shut his eyes. On some level, he knew this was the moment. He could almost physically feel it weighing on his shoulders. Though his conscious mind was confused, the deeper understanding that had been unlocked was drawing him closer to... something.
Slowly, like his body was moving on its own, he inputted a set of commands into the console. He'd flown a ship so many times that he didn't even have to look at them to know what he was doing. The decision he made was his – and yet fate was using him as it used everyone.
It seemed reuniting with his teammates would have to wait.
A little boy who looked like Bardock, who looked like Kakarot, and a pretty blue-haired girl. That same little boy fighting a Namekian, and then the boy is a man again, clashing with another Saiyan who bore a great resemblance to the king. A baby with bright blue eyes and purple hair; a broken, bloodied sword laying in sand. Tora, broken and bloodied himself. Someone with black hair and golden arm bracers decorated with blue stones, holding his hands over his ears and screaming. A different man wearing some type of frame over his eyes holding a bundle in his arms. Then, possibly the same violet-haired being as before, but their hair wasn't violet anymore but gold and there was lighting and rage. The youngest Crown Prince, playing with a baby who had azure hair. A strange sphere, buried beneath miles of earth as it awaited something.
And last, there was Bardock himself on some space station, standing alone before Frieza. At first, he looked exactly as Bardock did now, but his expression and posture were tense. But then the image altered once more, Bardock looking slightly older and much more wearied yet now he smiled in the face of the conqueror, no longer afraid because no one could outrun their fate.
Bardock opened his eyes as the pod ejected from port and headed for space, aware that his and everyone's destiny had been chosen.