It was night out, the moon was shining and the stars were sparkling. It had not been that way for a long time. Bardock was laying on top of a heap of rubble watching the sky. For some reason, the planet seemed peaceful even though there was really nothing peaceful about it. Death and stench lay around as commonly as grass. But for one reason or another, all was silent. Bardock had once again turned down Tora's offer to team up. However much Bardock desperately wanted to team up with Tora, he knew that he couldn't. It was too risky. Word would spread fast that there was now a group of saiyans fighting others. Soon there would be other groups to form and more war would break out. And there was plenty of saiyans stronger than Bardock and Tora put together.

It would at least take a couple of years to keep fighting to get their power levels up so that they could become strong enough to withstand more powerful people. Bardock sighed and thought to himself, " why do things have to be this way? I mean yah, I could travel away, but it wouldn't lay my worries to rest. I don't even know where I would go. I'll just have to stay here and hope the war ends before it takes my life." rumble rumble Bardock's eyes diverted sharply to the left. Someone or something was rummaging through the rubble. Bardock's scouter started clicking to indicate that someone else was closing in on him. Bardock swiftly got up and hid in the piles of debris.

"Alright, where's the little rodent." Bardock's scouter read that the person's power level was 800- especially low for a saiyan. Bardock stood still and heard the person come closer to him. Bardock revealed himself from the debris with a beam already glowing from his hand. "Alright, freeze!" the light of the beam turned out to reveal a small child- no older than five. He had tall spiky black hair, piercing eyes, and wore the usual saiyan armor with a cape. The child wore an expression of awe as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Bardock raised an eyebrow at the child. Why did he look so familiar? Bardock was sure that he had seen this kid's face somewhere before. Then Bardock asked, " hey kid, aren't you King Vegeta's brat?"

The child answered with indignance, " that is Prince Vegeta to you, low life." In saiyan society, calling someone a low life was as if you had maimed them no better then an animal. Bardock walked over to the prince and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck as if he were a small dog. "You know, that's a pretty big insult coming from you considering that I am your superior in age and in strength." Prince Vegeta struggled to get lose of Bardock's grip. "Let me go you thick-headed fool!" Bardock's hand lit up with a blue ball of energy. "Shut up or I'll make this hurt you more than it has to!" At once the prince fell silent. After a few moments that Bardock felt sure Prince Vegeta would not cause problems, he dropped him to the ground and waited to see if he would run off. Prince Vegeta stood frozen in his spot. He wanted to run but at the same time knew that he needed to say with Bardock.

"Hmmm…now, that I think about it, when WAS the last time I saw King Vegeta? Where did he run off to? Hmph…probably hiding somewhere. Coward." It was then that Bardock noticed the prince slightly trembling. It was a chilled night. Someone the prince's size would easily get cold in frigid weather. With solemness in his disposition, Bardock started to build a fire for he too was getting cold. Once the flames started dancing, Bardock and Prince Vegeta sat as close as they could to it without getting burned. Bardock was curious about the boy's past year or two- to see if he knew any information that is. Bardock piped up, " hey kid, why did you come to me? Where's you dad?"

The prince's eyes glistened with hurt. Something had happened to his father.

"Probably got killed off. Just as I suspected."

"My father didn't get killed off if that's what you're implying. He…he ran off."

"He abandoned you?"

"No, he did not abandon me!" Prince Vegeta said with pride and denial in his eyes. "He just…had to go somewhere."

"Where?"

"I don't know. But he told me to run off and find a fellow saiyan. He said that I should state my status so that any person I came upon would know to take care of me."

Bardock sighed. Just great, this is what he wanted to avoid in the first place. He was having to be responsible for a weakling straggler who happened to be the king's curd. On top of that, if the prince for some reason died, he would be responsible. Bardock was left with no choice except to be the prince's guardian. After awhile had passed, Bardock spoke up and said, "tomorrow, kid, I'll start training you."

"Training me? What are you talking about?"

"I mean if I have to guard you, then there's a good chance that you'll be sought after and I might be killed. In case of such an event, you will be ready."

Vegeta, who started pouting, huffed out, "fine."

MORNING

The sky was its usual bright red with small patches of blue. It was hot out and fairly sticky. Bardock woke up to have the sun gleaming in his eyes. He looked around the piles of rubble- no prince. He flew toward the north, still no life signal. Bardock looked around for some time before he finally gave up. The prince had run off. Bardock just shrugged and thought, "o well. Guess he's not my problem anymore." Bardock decided that he shouldn't stay in the place he was by the number of dispersed skeletons he saw, it wasn't a good place to be. Bardock started flying to the east only to find that once he had done so for about ten minutes, his scouter was indicating some life in the direction he was heading. When Bardock managed to get to the pin point, he saw nothing. Bardock clicked his scouter a couple of times to magnify the pin point. He was in the right place, but there was no one there. Bardock grumbled to himself, " damn scouter, now the stupid thing's broken." BLAST a ki beam shot up right in front of Bardock so that there was only a few inches between his body and the beam.

Then, Bardock saw an energy disk fly by. Bardock looked ahead to see that the prince and another saiyan were fighting. Quite unfortunately for Bardock ( and the prince) this saiyan was a second class with a power level of 3000. Bardock watched on impressed that the prince was holding his own. Prince Vegeta had a few cuts here and there, but from the looks of it, he was not seriously harmed. Bardock thought about interfering but restrained himself saying that the prince needed to be taught a lesson for running off, and if it got too out of hand, he would intervene. The fight kept straggling on. After about an hour or so, the opposing warrior was winning. The prince had been knocked into a wall a couple of times- and of course smacked around a bit. Then, the warrior had gotten Prince Vegeta by the head and crushed him into a wall.

Then he flung Prince Vegeta into some more heaps of rubble. Bardock was getting a little concerned but was still not very worried. Next the warrior smacked Prince Vegeta's face around with what looked like some pretty hard punches. Owww…Vegeta had been knocked up and down repeatedly with kicks to the ribs. Then Vegeta was smashed into the ground. Bardock was now starting to get worried. After that, Prince Vegeta was repeatedly kicked and blasted in the face, so much so that he was starting to draw blood. Prince Vegeta made a futile attempt to raise his arm to draw out an attack. He was too slow; once again he had been kicked in the ribs. Vegeta was now on the ground.

"This is serious…I better intervene." Bardock got in front of Prince Vegeta and sent a beam of energy directly at his opponent. The opposing warrior was only a little affected by it. "Pfft…what a weakling. He's almost a bigger insult than that kid." The warrior had become too cocky. In the time he was sneering, Bardock had rushed behind him and kicked in the back. And with no remorse, Bardock blasted away half of his energy. When the dust cleared, the warrior was beaten to a pulp with injuries everywhere. Bardock sighed, the warrior had sustained serious enough injuries to not be able to fight anymore. The warrior glared up at Bardock and stood up. He said with grudge in his voice, " this isn't the end of me." And with out hesitation, the warrior flew off defeated and ashamed. In the meanwhile, Bardock laid his eyes on the prince. Prince Vegeta was a mess. He was bleeding everywhere- especially his head. Bardock walked over and gave him a reproachful glare. Bardock laid his hand on one of Prince Vegeta's legs. As soon as he did, the prince groaned in pain. Bardock knew that it was broken.

His 'tank water wouldn't be able to fix that. Bardock would just have to find another way to deal with that. But for now, he had to take care of the other serious injuries. Bardock pulled out one of his capsules. He poured half of the bottle on Vegeta's head. Instantly, most of Vegeta's head wounds were gone. Bardock, still with a reproachful glare on his face said coldly, " I hope you learned something from this your majesty. I don't even have any bandages to fix that leg of yours." Prince Vegeta's face was apparent with pain. He half opened one of his eyes and managed to sound out, " why…why can't you use the wah---"

"Rejuvenation tank water can't fix bones. For time being you're stuck with a broken leg, and from the looks of it, a broken wrist." Prince Vegeta could not withstand the pain any longer and passed out. As Bardock carried him to where their last camp fire was, Bardock's mind ran rampant as to what he was suppose to do.

Prince Vegeta's eyes slowly opened to look upon a star filled twilight evening. Prince Vegeta's leg was hurting badly, as was his right arm. Prince Vegeta glanced over to the campfire to see Bardock staring at that fire hard with a cross/ concentrated look on his face. The prince sat up as best he could and looked at him for awhile until Bardock noticed that Vegeta had awakened. "O, you're awake. I brought some dinner. Bardock had found a hog wondering around and immediately blasted it. The prince's eyes glittered. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten- it had been forever ago.

Bardock gave Prince Vegeta half of the hog on a stick. The two sat quietly over the fire roasting their dinner. It was then that Prince Vegeta had a new look upon this man that had saved him. He did not know exactly what to call it. The best he could think of was a feeling of willing obedience toward this man. If Prince Vegeta had been correct people had referred to it as 'respect'. That was it, the prince had found respect for this low life solider. Perhaps more respect than he had for his father. After all, this soldier had barely known him and yet in only a couple of days, he saved his life, fed him, and protected him like he was his father. Prince Vegeta was in awe at the warrior's kindness. The prince looked up at Bardock with a slight glint of admiration in his eyes and said, "thank you."

TO BE CONTINUED………..