AN: Greetings. I don't own DBZ. My chapters have a tendency to be afflicted with lack of length and I like Yaoi. And crossovers. And reviews.
Gohan's going to be the guardian of past-vegetassei. Isn't that nice. *smiles*
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Guardian, Prologue - Beginnings
~ The semi-recent past, Vegetassei ~
Frieza gathered his power at the tip of a blood red fingernail.
A ki-blast stabbed through the planet in deathly silence.
Then the planet exploded in a blast of equally deathly noise and a glorious shower of sparks.
The whole thing lasted less than a minute.
Bardock jerked himself awake, the vivid memory of his own death catching at him with a sense of unreality.
"It was just a dream" he whispered softly, "just a dream. So why does it seem more real to me than life? This planet, Vegeta. It is still here."
Bardock stared up at the darkness. It was a long time before he fell asleep.
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~ The slightly-more-recent past, Vegetassei ~
Years later he remembered the dream, caught up in emotion that was not - quite - despair, but by rights should have been.
~How could the monster be so strong?~
Frieza had casually destroyed the planet's strongest warriors, and its king.
That thought was traced with echoing misery.
Bardock had served his king with fierce loyalty most of his life.
They weren't friends, the word was almost unheard of on Vegetassei, but a Saiyan's ties of loyalty ran stronger and deeper than family and that ran deep indeed.
Maybe it would have been called friendship if emotion of any kind had not been considered a weakness, but it was.
The Saiyan warrior had every right to despair, but there was still hope, however faint, and Bardock had never been one to give up.
Though technically only a third class warrior, Bardock had near perfect control over his ki, and not only for fighting.
"Logically, this won't work" he reminded himself.
Bardock drained his energy until it swirled around him, a moonlike silver shimmer.
Focussing his concentration he threw all his energy into the spell, draining his reserves until he could no longer stand upright.
Then Bardock did something almost unheard of in a Saiyan. He called for help.
His magic wound itself through the cry and it vanished silently.
The old warrior wondered if anyone would hear him. And if anyone did hear, would they come?
The Saiyans had been fighters and killers long before Frieza had arrived to make them so. It wouldn't be forgotten.
The loss of energy caught up to him in a rush and he slept.
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~ The recent past, after the Cell Games, Planet Earth ~
"Take me with you." Android 17 looked up at the time-traveler, his expression unreadable. "I need to see what I might have become."
He had watched as Cell destroyed many noble fighters (Piccolo, Tien, Vegeta, Trunks, Goku, Gohan –the list seemed endless).
They had survived and Cell had not, but the deliberate cruelty of it frightened him.
Not for himself; he didn't fear death, but because he might have done the same thing. It had been to close an escape.
He hated Cell. He didn't want to hate himself too.
Trunks said nothing, but nodded once and held out his hand to help the android into the time machine.
17 watched silently as the young man said goodbye to his friends before starting their journey.
He himself had no farewells to make.
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And elsewhere, an eleven-year-old who somehow wasn't a child anymore stared at a picture of his father and smiled sadly.
~I understand. I'll miss you Dad, but I understand.~
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AN: You do know the drill I believe. Read and review.