star445: "I wonder when this takes place where Goten and Trunks are chosen to fight Cooler hahaha." - Hehe! This takes place in Age 780; specifically, it is a few months before a certain goat breaks out of a certain prison, and a few months after Broly visits Earth! (Can you believe that the Tournament of Power also takes place in Age 780?) There are a few differences already, and major events may or may not happen the same as canon…!

What will Bardock's presence do to this lovely timeline?

Chapter 6: Rekindled Vigour

'Is there anything I can do?' Bardock thought to himself, coughing as Cooler stalked towards him. Since the sky going dark didn't faze Cooler, Bardock was left with little to no time at all to concoct any sort of plan.

What did Saiyans do as a trump card? Well, Bardock knew it was supposed to be to look at a full moon… which there wasn't. There was just a mere crescent moon. Viewable in broad daylight - that was something, though.

It was just his luck that he never got to learn the Power Ball for this kind of situation.

Never mind - Even if he could transform into a Great Ape, he might end up accidentally killing everyone else, too… which is not the plan. He hadn't exactly mastered it, only retaining memories of his time as one afterwards.

'Or is Super Saiyan just better anyway? Yeah, I'm goin' with that. It is the legend after all.'

He eyed Cooler who looked rather tall from down here on the floor.

'But how is the legend still not enough here…?' he sighed to himself, then shook his head to concentrate. 'Whatever. Hard n' fast. That's the plan now.'

Bardock was about to aim a foot to Cooler's knee when he felt a surge of energy flow through him. He and Cooler paused in confusion and Bardock quickly checked himself over. His armour was fixed? He wasn't hurting anymore?

His… full strength had returned!

The sky suddenly turned back to normal again a few seconds later.

Cooler narrowed his eyes, visibly annoyed by Bardock's stroke of luck. Now it would take even longer to make him writhe in agony! 'A minor inconvenience,' he decided.

With his fists clenched, he snapped at Bardock, "What is the meaning of this? How have you regained your strength after I have been beating you to death for several hours?"

Bardock breathed deeply and responded with a smirk, "Couldn't tell you. I guess we'll have to keep going then, huh?"

Cooler let out a battle cry. It was time for the battle to get bloodier. And it really did end up getting much more brutal than before. Punches pounded like torpedoes, ki blasts seared like death rays. The ground was quickly messed up to how it was before the wishes were made, again.

However, neither Bardock nor Cooler were strangers to brutality of this degree.

A ways off, the surrounding adult Namekians that were revived or simply healed thanks to the Dragon Balls, stood spectating the furious battle. They knew that Bardock had told them to back off, and they would respect that command for now.

A warrior spoke to himself, "Bardock… for the sake of not just our planet… but the whole universe, you must win, just like Son Goku did against Frieza and his men!"

Bardock had a renewed sense of vigour in his movements, which greatly boosted his confidence. This stemmed from the important fact that the beating he received earlier, then the healing afterwards gave him that much more of a Zenkai boost.

It felt good to be a Saiyan, especially right now.

Bardock dashed right into Cooler's face and tried to deck him in the forehead, but his arm was grabbed by Cooler and it was subsequently yanked away. Cooler retaliated with death beams from his glowing red eyes which Bardock was grazed by on his shoulder. It didn't damage him too badly.

But while Bardock was distracted from the stinging sensation, Cooler lifted one hand and in a show of power, levitated the rubble beneath Bardock's feet. Bardock leapt out of the way, but the rubble soon became more of an issue.

Bardock dodged left, right, up and down to avoid the salvo of rocks and dirt that was fired in every direction.

'Telekinesis…? No, wait… Psychokinesis?'

Bardock shielded himself from the last of the rubble and dodged a punch from Cooler, only to then get smacked in the shins by Cooler's tail.

Bardock was sent to the ground, only not quite. He somersaulted back to a standing position and then threw two ki balls at Cooler. Cooler batted one away but tanked the other which he could not avoid. It left only a slight burn mark on an armoured part of his body, making him chuckle.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Just wait and see… rotten filth!" Bardock spat as he flew once again towards Cooler, but began to spin diagonally on approach. Cooler anticipated an overhead attack so he raised his arms, and he was correct to do so as Bardock slammed a spin-kick right onto Cooler's raised forearms.

"Piece of trash!"

Cooler hand-chopped Bardock's ankle to get it out of his face. Bardock then did a hand spring from his descent and finally got his desired kick to Cooler's knee.

"Augh! You little -"

"Take this!" Bardock yelled and planted his palms onto Cooler's bare feet, attempting to burn them with two ki blasts. Cooler flew quickly into the air as he recognised what this barbaric monkey was attempting to do.

The two were now at a standoff, a couple paces away from each other. Both breathed for more air. However, the both of them knew this reprieve wouldn't last long.

Planet Earth…

Bulma could've sworn Trunks was outside in the garden just a moment ago. It was just a few minutes before he would eat lunch, and he and she both knew this. Where had he gone? She began to call for him, but upon hearing no response, she travelled the entire compound to look for him.

She quickly made her way to her father's lab after a quarter of an hour, where he was working on some circuitry.

Dr. Briefs greeted her with a big grin, "Bulma! Oh, my look at the time, is it noon already-?"

"Dad, listen… Have you seen Trunks in the past few minutes?" A look of concern was clearly evident on her face.

"Trunks? No… I saw him this morning, but not a couple minutes ago, my girl. Why, have you lost him?" He adjusted his glasses.

"What's all the running about for, dear?" A new voice entered the room.

Bulma turned to her mother. "Mom! Have you seen Trunks in the past few minutes?"

"No, I don't think so! Would you like me to call for him?" Mrs. Briefs spoke calmly.

"Yes please, Mom. He was in the garden one minute, then just gone the next! Ugh… just when I thought I could have a nice summer's day…"

Bulma paced around the lab. Mrs. Briefs left the room, and her high-pitched calls could be heard for what sounded like miles away.

"Oh, don't worry, Bulma. I'm sure he's close by. You know how he loves to explore," her father reassured her.

The sounds of a baby crying reached their ears. "Oh, now Bulla's upset from Mom's shouting! Just great." Bulma exited the lab to go and check on her baby daughter.

She decided she couldn't wait any longer and after ten minutes had passed, she picked up her phone and dialled a number as soon as she had calmed Bulla down.

…

"Hello? This is the Son Residence."

"Chichi! It's me, Bulma."

"Oh, hi, Bulma! How are you doing?" Chichi responded.

"Not great right now… I can't find Trunks. One minute he was in the garden and then the next… He was about to have lunch. Have you seen him in the last half hour or so?"

"He hasn't come over here, if that's what you mean. No, I'm pretty sure Goten would know. I'll ask him."

There was a 30-second pause.

"Chichi?" Bulma said.

"…Goten was… He's not in his room, the bathroom… anywhere in the house! And I'm pretty sure I would've noticed him sneaking out of his window! It's locked tight!"

"Goten's missing now too?!"

"Bulma! We have to find my little Goten! He might have gone off on a little adventure with your son!" Chichi's voice sounded both worried and accusatory.

"Look… let's calm down about this, okay? I'll ask around, and we'll find 'em!" Bulma declared.

"Y- You better! And-"

"I'm gonna go look for them now, Chichi. They can't have gone too far… I hope. I'll call you later when I have some news!" Bulma ended the call and proceeded to talk to Gohan about Goten and Trunks' disappearances.

Because where was Vegeta when you needed him? Training with Goku light years away on some inaccessible god planet, of course. And Whis only answered her calls half the time.

Luckily for her, Gohan had just returned home from a conference.

—

"So you're saying they just up and vanished? That's odd…" Gohan hummed. "Though, they do like to hang out in the woods of Mount Paozu sometimes. Tell you what - I'll head out right now and look for them, okay?"

"Thanks Gohan…" Bulma sighed, "I owe you one."

She hung up, and Videl walked into the room where Gohan was, overhearing some of the conversation.

"That sounded serious… Is everything alright?" She looked concerned.

"No… Goten and Trunks have disappeared, so I'm gonna head out and find them. They had better be where I found 'em last time…" He combed his hair with his hand, shaking his head.

Videl cautioned him, "Be careful. With all the stuff I've seen these past few years, something bad could've happened."

"I agree." He held her arms and kissed her on the cheek. "I promise I'll be extra careful."

After donning his gi he made his way to the front door. "I'll be back soon."

Gohan's 1½-year-old daughter Pan looked up at him curiously as he left, sucking her thumb. "Daddy go?"

Videl smiled at the little toddler Pan and repeated, amused, "Yeah, Daddy go, sweetie. He'll come back soon and spend time with us!"

She picked her daughter up and gazed at the closed front door. '…He better come back soon,' she thought.

"Gah! Piccolo! Don't scare me like that!" Muffled shouting came from outside the front door.

"What? I was just standing here. You need to pay attention to your surroundings!" Piccolo chided with some amusement in his voice.

Videl shook her head and made her way further inside her home.

New Namek…

Trunks and Goten had yet to arrive at the battleground, which meant that Bardock and Cooler's bloody battle was still in motion.

Cooler was feeling mildly inconvenienced from the bout that should've been more one-sided than it already was. As he moved to elbow Bardock's shoulder, Bardock rolled out of the way super quickly and shot at Cooler with several ki blasts.

And just when Cooler thought he had him in a secure headlock, Bardock, the savage he was to Cooler, bit into an unarmoured part of his arm to escape his clutches.

This was all still under Cooler's control however. He knew that. He was merely playing a game of tactics at the moment.

Bardock was relentless, and despite the battle being fought for so long, he not only felt himself grow weary, but also even stronger by the minute. After getting fully healed by one of the wishes, he had obtained a Zenkai boost from his first bout with Cooler. This meant that he was now nearly a match for the tyrant. Or so he thought.

Cooler understood that he was still the superior fighter here, despite getting outsmarted at times, and decided to reveal his true thoughts, chuckling, "Allow me to let you in on a piece of useful information - I haven't been going all out like you clearly have!"

"What?! What the hell do you mean?!" Bardock shouted, his brows lowered.

"Exactly what you think it means, stupid oaf! All that has transpired in our bout was merely a good dose of training for me!"

Bardock growled in anger as Cooler continued. Was Cooler serious? Or was he lying?

"I must thank you for at least providing me insight into the fighting style of a simian clod such as yourself. Whereas my little brother Frieza failed against you Super Saiyans, I will succeed by an unfathomably wide margin! You will be nothing more than space dust when this is ov-"

"Do you ever shut up?" Bardock stood unmoving, his golden hair shining as the gentle wind blew it.

"What?!" Cooler raged in indignation.

"Listen to yourself. You're going on and on!" Bardock angrily complained. "Shut your trap and fight me!"

"You'll pay for your insolence! When I get my hands around your throat, you will know true pain!" Cooler readied himself to lunge at Bardock.

Just as the two were about to reengage in their strenuous fight, Bardock's mind thumped.

'Ugh… what..?'

In this moment, he had a familiar feeling pass through his mind in a flash.

His thoughts automatically connected the feeling to his son Kakarot.

Bardock's face looked confused, which also confused and angered Cooler even more as he studied the Saiyan.

"Why in the blazes are you not positioning yourself for battle? I'm going to kill you!" Cooler stated slowly as he stomped towards him.

"What…?" Bardock still ignored him.

As the feeling dissipated, Bardock looked around him, searching for a reason as to why that happened.

That's when he peered up and saw… two children in the air.

"What now?!" Cooler snapped as he too spotted the two youngsters floating above them.

"Kakarot…? Is that you?" Bardock whispered. 'No, that can't be right. He looks too small. But I know that outfit from the visions. Though… he beat Frieza as an adult…'

The children giggled. That got their attention even more. The kids were whispering to each other, by the looks of things.

"Well this isn't what I thought it was gonna be!" the older boy whispered to the younger, "That's their ally called 'Burdock'? You sure he isn't like, your dad's long lost brother or something, Goten?" the mauve-haired boy joked aloud with his hands on his hips.

"I know! And he's wearing armour like your dad does!" The younger boy pointed at Bardock. "And he's a Super Saiyan!"

The younger turned to Bardock. "Hi, Burdock! We're gonna help!" He then waved, beaming.

Cooler looked at the two in disbelief, narrowing his bright red eyes. "Are you seriously telling me that you two idiotic children have come to help him?!"

Bardock thought, 'The black-haired one looks like a Saiyan. And not only that; he looks just like me and Kakarot! That leaves me with several burning questions, alright.'

Cooler rambled on, "What is this, some kind of circus act? Another interim? Bahaha! What will you both do, attempt to bite my fingers?!"

The two kids scrunched their faces in disgust at the example, while Bardock eyed the children warily, especially the Kakarot lookalike. He was really trying to figure the two out.

"Ew! Yucky!"

"I'm with ya, Goten. That's disgusting!" Trunks responded.

'Go…ten…' Bardock's mind was spinning.

Goten looked thoughtful. "Hey, maybe that's why your dad wears gloves when he fights, because creeps like Mister Purple down there might try to bite his fingers. Is that even a fair strategy?"

Trunks lowered his eyelids. "Goten, you're overthinking this. That's not-"

Cooler shot a single blast at them to get their attention. They dodged it. "Enough of this, you runts! Because you do not appear to fear me, I will show you why you should!" Cooler charged at the two pipsqueaks, only to run into empty air.

Bardock was surprised by the quick dodge, but he suspected that the kids had more up their sleeves. However, Bardock, the proud man he was, didn't truly appreciate their presence. This wasn't some children's playground. Although he surmised that they were indeed strong for mere children, this was Frieza's brother they planned on fighting.

He shouted, "Hey! You brats! I don't know where the hell you came from, but this is between me and him! Got it? Now get out of here!"

Trunks and Goten looked down at the angry Saiyan and Trunks shouted back to him, "Hey! We didn't ask to be here!"

'Though I guess we didn't say "no" to the Dragon…' he thought. He then continued, "Those Namekians brought us here to help you! Besides, I may not look like much to you adults just yet, but I've been trained by the best warrior in the universe!" Trunks put his hands on his hips and smiled.

"Oh! Me too!" Goten waved a hand high in the air as he also attempted to persuade the doubting 'Burdock', and it was partially true as well. His mother was a really strong fighter herself, and his big brother Gohan saved the entire world, after all! Of course he was strong!

Bardock narrowed his eyes. "I don't care who you've been trained by; as a Saiyan, my fights are my own! I don't need any help from children! Especially for a fight!"

Goten piped up, "But we're Saiyans too! So there! That means it's also our fight now, right?" Goten bowed at Cooler to signal he was ready to engage in battle.

Bardock's eyes widened in surprise at the news of the purple haired boy being a Saiyan too, while Cooler clenched his fists and exclaimed, "You are both Saiyans? Now I have all the more reason to beat the two of you runts, as well as the 'alpha' of this little troupe, until there are no traces of you all left! Raaaaaagh!"

Cooler accumulated a faint purple aura and charged at Goten, only for his fist to be caught by the child, who had gathered his own golden aura.

"What-?"

Goten delivered a swift uppercut to Cooler's armoured chin, which hurt the child's knuckles a tad. Goten backed away from Cooler.

"Wow… that mouth guard is really tough! I put a lot of effort into that punch!" Goten noted aloud to Trunks as he shook his hand in a little pain.

Trunks nodded with a serious expression, then his eyes widened as he sensed something. He turned his head away then back to Goten. "Goten! I can feel someone approaching from over there! I'll handle this guy. You go check that other guy out!"

"Are you sure Trunks? I mean, Frieza was so strong that my dad struggled in Super Saiyan Bl-"

"Yeah, I got it! I think I know what this guy's power's really like." Trunks looked Cooler up and down and smirked. "And it isn't nearly as much as we thought."

Bardock tensed, sweating profusely. 'Is this kid serious? He'll get himself killed for saying that!' he thought with a disbelieving voice in his mind.

"You insolent worm!" Cooler began attacking the little runt who dared to belittle his power in such a way. Trunks was right there to greet him in turn with his own attacks.

Bardock looked at Trunks, who was now going blow-for-blow with the purple and white tyrant. He suddenly thought, 'That kid's not only part Saiyan, but his name's also Trunks? What kind of person names their kid after underwear?'

Satisfied with his best friend's optimistic analysis, Goten flew around 500 metres away to where Cooler's Armoured Squadron member Salza was.

As Salza flew towards the fight, Goten called to him, "Hey! Blue person! Are you with that Cooler guy?"

Salza looked puzzled by the small child who clearly wasn't Namekian, and wondered for a brief moment what he was doing here on this planet. Then, he noticed the similar hair to his previous interrogator.

"You… You're the son of zat Saiyan filth who took out my team and stole our scouters aren't you?! Tell me where you're hiding zem or it won't end well for you!"

Bardock was watching both situations play out, and decided to help the black-haired child Goten stop Salza from interfering first, hoping that this "Trunks" kid could somehow stall Cooler for long enough until Salza was down for good.

[Author's notes: *I figured that Low-class Saiyans generally weren't taught how to conjure a Power Ball to become a Great Ape. In fact, Bardock asks (Prince) Vegeta to make one in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, and in Xenoverse, Bardock asks the same thing of the Prince.

*DB Daima apparently adds a lot of new lore, so I might consider adding tidbits here and there where there wouldn't have been originally in future chapters. We'll see what kind of stuff we find out in the show!]