Planet Vegeta, Age 737
"Why… why has it come to this?"
Across the skies of Planet Vegeta, Bardock flies at top speed towards his home. With all his remaining will, he hopes that Gine is still awake, knowing that this will only be harder to explain if his wife is just waking up.
In his arms, he holds, as best he can, two large metal ships. For a second, Bardock almost felt bad for stealing these ships from the higher Saiyan militia, but that feeling easily slips away as he recalls that they have much bigger fish to fry.
Frieza is on his way, and he plans to obliterate the Saiyan race.
'It's time.'
Ginyu clicks on the scouter attached to his ear. A ping can be heard throughout the empty room as Ginyu grips the scouter tightly, removing it from the side of his head.
He sighs, as he knows there's nothing he can do. There was never anything he could do, despite being the strongest soldier in the Frieza Force. And another planet, another race will pay for it. 'Frieza, you bastard…' Ginyu thinks as he grips the scouter harder, causing the glass screen to splinter and nearly shatter, blood slowly dripping from the series of cuts he just caused himself.
Suddenly, Ginyu hears the sound of a moving door. He looks back slowly, seeing a low-ranking alien soldier with the signature Force armor. However, a quick glance catches our captain's attention.
"Captain! Th-there's something going on outside!" The simple soldier sputters out.
A rumble approaches the ship, as even the pair of aliens can start to hear the havoc from outside.
"Lead the way." Ginyu replies.
With great zeal, he sprints alongside the low-ranker. As the two make their way through the empty halls of the Frieza mothership, Ginyu catches a slight glance out a nearby window, but upon seeing what he does, his heart drops.
A massive supernova is heading directly towards the planet. 'It's over.'
Nearly a minute prior…
"Frieza!" Bardock can only cry the tyrant's name as he flies through the rapidly-lessening atmosphere of Vegeta. In hot pursuit of his ex-emperor, he crashes past aliens of a rainbow of colors.
From the side, a strange soldier with no nose and a massive, bulbous head grabs the arm of Bardock. Another random soldier grips his other arm, restraining the rogue Saiyan. As Bardock fights to free himself from their grasps, he glances up to see his worst nightmare.
In the seat of a hovering chair, directly in front of the massive mothership, Frieza watches over the situation at play. A slight chuckle from him breaks the tension of the situation.
Bardock can feel, even the soldiers holding onto his limbs are shaking intensely. With ease, he shakes the two warriors off of him, delivering a roundhouse kick to the neck of one, knocking them unconscious. The second, the one with the large head, simply backs away from the Saiyan, not wanting to face the same fate as his partner.
"My, my, what a wonderful sight! Surely, you must be here to greet your lord, Saiyan." Frieza taunts, every word digging into Bardock's skin. This is the tyrant who threatens his whole planet, his whole race, and all he does is taunt them.
"Frieza… This is the end of the line." Bardock starts. A look of pure amusement washes over Frieza. "You'll pay. You'll pay for the countless lives you've taken, for the pain you've caused my people." In Bardock's hand, a swirling ball of blue ki erupts, forming his signature Riot Javelin.
With nothing left to lose, Bardock can only pray that Gine can get their children off the planet in time, as he launches the Javelin at top speed right at the emperor.
As quickly as the ball formed, it fades, as from Frieza's finger, a massive fiery orb of energy forms, practically eating the Riot Javelin like a simple snack. Frieza can only laugh as he flicks his wrist, launching the Supernova attack directly at the poor Saiyan, as well as the rest of the army unfortunate to be there.
The Supernova envelops Bardock, burning away at his skin and damaging him beyond repair. He closes his eyes. All he can feel is the pain of the orb, when everything fades.
Immediately, Bardock opens his eyes, as a series of visions flood into his head. He sees someone, his daughter, breaking the face of a demonic-looking figure, her hair a spiky gold.
He sees his oldest son, Raditz, with his hair flowing from his immense aura, a golden aura, and no pupils in his eyes, battling a tall green man wearing a helmet.
He sees a young child wearing a vest and pants with a blue belt. The child's hair is bright blue, but their eyes are a piercing green, as he punts a masked monster into the distance.
He sees a scarred man with only one arm and electricity sparking around his golden visage as he duels with a familiar man in a dark martial arts gi.
He sees another man with grayish skin glow in a brilliant golden light, with what seems like strings holding him in place as a mechanical menace beats him down.
"That's it… The power… the Super Saiyan!" Bardock calls as his vision returns, seeing a black void. The five figures, his children and grandchildren, begin to pour their power into Bardock. He feels his energy returning, and his aura growing. "It's time. Let's turn this around."
Frieza, content with his destruction, turns his chair to leave the scene.
In the midst of his retreat, an eruption occurs, spitting blazing hot ki in every direction. Frieza glances behind him, only to be met with a direct punch to the face, sending the tyrant flying out of his hover chair.
Frieza shakes off the attack, looking to see who dared throw the punch, but his heart sinks as he sees what he feared his whole life. A Super Saiyan.
This story is so heavily inspired by Damon: What-If on YouTube. It's something I've wanted to do for over a year. This is my first time ever writing a story for a major platform, but I hope to continue this writing to its sheer end, despite how long it (inevitably) is going to take.
Anyways, I'll be listing the major what-ifs at play per chapter (some won't be very recognizable until later on, but still), just so you know some of the what-ifs I considered and some of the YouTube creators who deserve to be recognized. I won't be showing the full names of all the what-ifs, because it takes away some of the magic of the story since you kinda know what'll happen, but if you really want to know, you can visit these peoples' channels and easily fill in the blanks. If I miss any, let me know, please. Thanks.
What if Turles and Goku were Twins? - Sacred Saiyan
What if Bardock went Super Saiyan against Frieza? - Various creators, but the main ones I found were Carthu's Dojo and MasakoX
What if the ? ? became ? - Again, various creators, but MasakoX, Salad Saiyan, Lightro Storm, and Dex Comics collab with Plus Ultra Man
What if ? and ? were ? - Salad Saiyan
What if the DBZ ? were canon? - MasakoX
What if ? ? went too far? - MasakoX, Plus Ultra Man
What if ? was ? - MasakoX
Plus a few more that I probably can't remember rn, it's 1:30 am atm.
I hope to write more soon, enjoy the (short) read!