[To Shadowwriter01, thank you very much! I appreciate it!]

[Author's note to clarify some things before you read: Please bear in mind that the events described here were written before Daima was a thing. I have written this fanfic to remain faithful to the events that happened in DB, DBZ and DBS. If Daima is indeed completely adhering to the canon of DB through to DBS, then I'm not sure what Trunks and Goten might have been told regarding Daima's events yet, which is why I haven't added any Daima content into this chapter. As of writing this author's note, there have been 5 chapters of Daima released. If the kids do get told stuff, just imagine that they mention it to Bardock at some point during the journey to Earth, which is what this chapter is about.

Also, this chapter's around 4000 words long! Grab your popcorn!]

Chapter 10: Dragon Ball Zuper

Day 1 onboard the ship headed for Earth…

"So, feel like telling me what the hell's been happening on Earth yet?" Bardock asked when they finished up eating breakfast aboard the ship, because he was far too intrigued about knowing what his son has been up to.

Trunks chuckled, amused by his wording. "Well… where to start… Since I mentioned him yesterday, I'll start with this…" He shuffled in his seat and began to recount. Goten decided to lounge with his feet on the tabletop. "So, there's this guy called Lord Beerus…"

"He's a god!" Goten exclaimed.

"Don't interrupt me Goten!" Trunks told him off.

"Sorry…"

"So, yeah, he's a god," Trunks reiterated from Goten.

"A god," Bardock repeated without much inflection, lowering his brows.

"Yep. He came to Earth like two years ago or something, looking for a Super Saiyan God. Uh, which was a problem 'cause we didn't know about it and he said if this Super Saiyan God didn't show up then he'd destroy the Earth…" Trunks explained.

Bardock's eyes widened. "A Super Saiyan God? I've heard of that legend. Don't tell me that exists too?"

"It sure does. It makes your hair go red!" Goten replied.

"Hold on, this 'Beebus' guy was gonna blow up Earth?! Just what kind of god is he?" Bardock leaned forward in his seat.

"Ehh… well… he's the God of Destruction!" Trunks chuckled, scratching his cheek.

"God of - How the hell are you all still alive?!" Bardock looked confused.

"Well, you know the Dragon Balls-"

"Oh, of course… Those things fix just about anything, huh?" Bardock commented plainly.

"Haha!" Goten laughed.

Trunks continued, "Anyway, we used them to have the dragon tell us how to find the Super Saiyan God, and he said it was a ritual of six righteous Saiyans and five of 'em had to give their power to one of them."

"You're joking." Bardock shook his head. "So all this time, there really has been something even above the Super Saiyan of legend?!"

"Oh, well yeah! I mean, there's Super Saiyan 2 and 3 before Super Saiyan God too!"

"There's what…?!" Bardock couldn't believe what the kid was spouting. He double checked the kid's expression. "You're serious?"

"Mhm." Trunks nodded.

Bardock shook his head, his mind blown. "I can't imagine what our people would have become if they knew about those kinds of power-ups. You make it sound like there's a whole genre of Saiyan biology that not even the Saiyans themselves knew about."

"So were you guys really that clueless?" Trunks smirked.

Bardock pointed at him, a little insulted. "Watch it. Most of us had no time to seriously think about realising a legend that not even the King knew how to. We were always put to work, and we relied on the Great Ape transformation as our trump card. It was all we needed to get the job done," Bardock explained.

"Uh… can I ask something? What's a Great Ape?" Goten asked cluelessly.

"Has no one ever told you about that?" Trunks looked at his best friend. "Dad told me how all full-blooded Saiyans are born with tails. And those tails can make a Saiyan transform when they look at a full moon! Apparently that form was really primitive. You'd just be roaming around destroying stuff not realising what you were doing unless you trained yourself to control it," Trunks commented.

"Whoa… for real…?" Goten gaped in awe at the information. "What does it look li-"

"Anyway, what happened with this whole Super Saiyan God thing and that God of Destruction?" Bardock steered the conversation back on track.

Trunks explained, "Right, so, Goten's dad was the one to absorb all of our power and he transformed into a Super Saiyan God."

"His eyes turned red too, not just his hair!" Goten chimed in, "And he looked a little less big."

"Yeah! And he and Beerus fought in the sky and Goku was keeping up with him, until he got defeated. Buuuut! Beerus said he wasn't gonna destroy Earth and so he went away with his god friend Whis. He really liked Earth's food too!" Trunks smiled.

"Okay, okay. This sounds way too asinine to actually be true. I mean, a Low-class Saiyan can become powerful, but there's no way even Frieza could've taken on a god, let alone King Vegeta!" Bardock argued in disbelief.

"Well, we're all suuuuper strong you know! Dad says that you can beat anyone with enough hard work!" Goten said.

"That's right. I mean, me and Goten became Super Saiyans like a while ago, sooooo…" Trunks added.

Bardock shook his head in disbelief. 'It's gotta be those damn Zenkai boosts after near death. I mean, I worked and trained tooth and nail my whole life and I only managed to become a Super Saiyan when it was too late to save us all,' Bardock thought to himself with a huge frown. 'That has to be the difference between these guys and me…'

"Alright, I think my brain's going to explode here. Go and… do somethin' else." Bardock rested his head in his hand.

Day 2:

Another morning, another tale.

"So it started with Gohan getting baited by these Kais who let these weirdos take his energy…"

The trio were sat in their respective seats once again at the table.

"…And basically, there was this wizard who wanted to wake up Majin Buu, who's realllly powerful," Trunks explained.

"Just how powerful are we talking here?" Bardock asked with intrigue.

"Like, more than even Super Saiyan 3," Trunks replied.

"Okay, that's ridiculous. Are all o' these talks gonna be centred on ludicrous power levels?" Bardock shook his head.

"I mean, for you I guess it is ludicrous enough, huh? I mean, you only knew of just the basic Super Saiyan until yesterday, right?"

"Hmph."

Trunks decided to continue. "So yeah, anyway, Buu woke up and started destroying stuff, and when he got split into a good and bad half, then… then a lot more people started dying, and…"

"Me and Trunks had to fuse to try and defeat the evil Majin Buu!" Goten added.

"Uh… "fuse"?" Bardock looked quite confused.

"Yeah, Piccolo taught us the fusion technique! So basically we do this dance and a single warrior is born from the two of us!" Trunks explained.

"I don't buy it. You're makin' up a load of baloney now. Even if that was a thing, just how would that even work, physically?" He was exhausted with the way this conversation was going already.

"How about we show you?" Trunks suggested.

"Yeah! Let's show him the steps-"

"Actually, don't," Bardock interrupted. Truth be told, Bardock was a little weirded out by the concept of fusing via some dance.

"Why not?" Goten asked inquisitively. "It only lasts thirty minutes! It's not that harmful."

"Maybe you can show me some… other time," he responded, really meaning he never wanted to see it.

"It's actually pretty neat!" Trunks tried to convince him further, "Our fusion Gotenks has lots more power than the both of us combined!"

Bardock looked a little startled by this claim, considering he thought Trunks and Goten had ridiculous power alone anyway.

But he still said, "Maybe later." He then asked, "How exactly did you fight Majin Buu? Did you transform into that Super Saiyan 3?"

"Yep! We got a lotta hits on him for sure!" Goten answered.

"How did you manage to get this sort of power?" Bardock asked in a disbelieving tone; these two were mere children, after all! It wasn't fair!

"Well Dad taught us how to get it! It's something you gotta find deep inside you…" Goten hunched over and pointed to his belly to emphasise his point. He added, "Dad even showed it to us too! It's got crazy hair!"

"Right…" 'Is my son some kind of Super Saiyan specialist or somethin'?' Bardock thought. He then got back on track. "Did you kill Buu?"

"Um… no. Even when Gohan came to help after he got a power-up, we all still lost…" Trunks looked at the floor.

"That must have been some fight…" Bardock muttered.

"Yeah it was alright. And so, my dad and Goten's dad eventually beat him, even after Buu turned into this small kid version of himself," Trunks concluded.

"How? Isn't this guy stronger than even Super Saiyan 3?" Bardock wondered.

Trunks replied, "Yeah, so Goku used a Spirit Bomb instead! And it worked!"

"Okay, what's a Spirit Bomb?" Bardock said with an unamused sigh, bracing himself for another long explanation. He leaned back and placed his feet on the table.

"So basically you ask people to give you their energy and it grows into this huge ball of light! And then you throw it onto the enemy!" Trunks said.

"…And this kid version of Buu didn't think to move out of the way of it?" Bardock commented.

"Look, I wasn't there, okay? They probably distracted him or something!" Trunks said.

"Hmph. I think you guys got lucky with killing that one. Seems a whole lot of trouble went down, on Earth of all places. Anyway, I'm off to the training room."

Bardock proceeded to get up and leave as he had frankly yet again had enough crazy stuff explained to him today.

"Oh, okay! See you later!" Trunks called to him.

"Bye!" Goten shouted.

Trunks turned to Goten, grinning. "…He doesn't know anything! It's kinda refreshing telling him about our adventures! There's not many people we can really tell. They just wouldn't take it seriously!"

Trunks chuckled, and Goten chuckled along with him.

Day 3:

The morning after, yet another tale was told. This time, it was about the feats Goku had achieved in his life.

"Well, our Moms knew Goku from when he was a kid, and he was really strong! He competed in a lot of tournaments and stuff, and stopped an evil organisation called the Red Ribbon Army!" Trunks explained.

"He stopped an entire army? As a kid? Earth must be full of weaklings if that's the case," Bardock grunted.

"Uh, nope! They were a nasty bunch, Mom said," Trunks argued, "They made these really powerful robots and androids. Some of us humans are really good with technology!"

"Hm, I'll take your word for it. What else has he done?" Bardock crossed his arms.

"Well he stopped Piccolo's dad from taking over the whole world!" Goten said.

"Piccolo's a Namekian, by the way," Trunks helpfully added.

"Alright. From everything I've heard so far about him it seems like Kakarot's some kind of world saviour," Bardock commented.

"Well he sure is that!" Goten confirmed, "And he was a saviour when he defeated Frieza!"

"Yes, that's right… Frieza was taken down by my son. I saw parts of it in the visions I had a year ago." Bardock closed his eyes.

"You did?" Trunks asked.

"Yeah. I'm glad it came true. Frieza was a complete scumbag." His eyes darted between the two boys for a moment, who giggled at his derogatory word choice. He continued, "Not one of us liked him. Speaking of my son, how did he achieve the Legend?" Bardock asked them.

Trunks answered, "Well, Gohan said he turned Super Saiyan in the battle with Frieza-"

"Wait, that's right! I remember now… I saw it… right before…" Bardock paused.

"Right before…?" Trunks repeated.

"…Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta," Bardock finished.

"You saw Dad go Super Saiyan? Before he was born?" Goten gawked.

"No, he was three years old when it happened," Bardock corrected him.

"That's kinda crazy. What else have you seen?" Trunks asked Bardock.

"A whole load of stuff. I saw Prince Vegeta fight Kakarot… and Kakarot's pod - I saw it go to Earth…"

"Woah! What else?" Goten asked in awe.

"…Uh… somethin' about carrying milk crates?"

"What?"

"No, wait, I remember something else - It was like a red aura, and he shouted something I can't remember the name of."

"Hm… red aura…" Trunks pondered.

"Maybe it's that old technique Dad uses, Trunks? The Kaioken?" Goten wondered.

"Was that the name? Right. Some kind of power boost or something?" Bardock asked.

"Yeah, it is," Goten responded.

"I can't recall much else but I had a lot of the same vision, of Kakarot facing Frieza. All the visions of the future I've had, I haven't been able to change so far." Bardock scratched his head irritatedly.

"That's kinda cool though, that you've seen Dad's battle with Frieza. I always wanted to see that." Goten hopped down from his seat. "Anyway, I need to go pee," Goten said hurriedly before darting out of the room, leaving Bardock and Trunks looking unimpressed with the abrupt exit.

Day 4:

There were so many tales to tell.

Trunks counted on his fingers, "…So there's Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2, then Super Saiyan 3, then Super Saiyan-"

"4!"

"Don't be silly, Goten! Anyway, then there's Super Saiyan God, which is better than 3, so yeah it's kinda the fourth one I suppose. And then…!" Trunks pointed to his pinky finger, "…We have Super Saiyan Blue!"

""Blue"…?" Bardock looked puzzled by the name.

"Yep! Blue!" Goten explained excitedly, "It's when a Super Saiyan God turns Super Saiyan! Dad told me all about it! It's his favourite transformation!"

"But wouldn't he already be a Super Saiyan? How the heck do you go Super Saiyan while being a Super Saiyan?" Bardock questioned.

"Well technically, uh… Super Saiyan God doesn't mean you're a 'Super Saiyan', per se, but you become more powerful than one!" Trunks explained.

"And you can go Super Saiyan on top of that…" Bardock stated disbelievingly, now feeling like he was somehow pathetically weak and outmatched despite achieving the legend his people only dreamed of obtaining.

"Mhm. It's awesome to see! Dad's eyes n' hair go blue and everything! And we can't even feel his ki either! It's more like a huuuuuge pressure," Goten said.

"That sounds… unbelievable." Bardock shook his head. 'I hope I get the chance to fight that form someday. I bet the fight would really be somethin' else,' he thought to himself.

Day 5:

"Where are your tails?"

"Oh, me and Trunks weren't born with those…" Goten replied, "I think it would've been cool to have one though! My brother Gohan did once!" He swayed a leg across the floor with his hands tied behind his head.

'A tail? "Cool"…? That's new,' Bardock thought.

"You've got a tail, don'tcha Grandpa?" Goten pointed at it. "Can I touch-"

"No."

"Why not?"

"A Saiyan's tail is not to be touched as they are very sensitive. It would feel uncomfortable. So no." Bardock turned away.

"Aw… Okay…" Goten scratched his cheek. "Hey Trunks! We said our dads used to have tails, didn't we?" Goten called over to his friend.

"Well yeah, of course," Trunks responded as he walked over to them.

"Look - Grandpa's got a tail! I've never seen one in real life before," Goten mentioned, "Except for that one time Tarble came to visit…"

"Oh yeah… I kinda didn't notice your tail at first, Bardock," Trunks admitted.

"Tarble?" Bardock uttered.

"He's my uncle!" Trunks said.

"He's your… uncle?" 'Vegeta has a brother? How come I never heard of him?' Bardock wondered.

"Yup! He's a really nice guy. I hope you get to meet him someday!" Trunks smiled.

Day 6:

Another day, another conversation. The morning was so uneventful that the kids decided to prank Bardock by filling his boots with fruit juice, and putting marshmallows on the tips of his spiky hair while he slept.

Let's just say they definitely wouldn't do it again after the outburst that followed.

That afternoon, everyone had calmed down.

"Hey, why is your ki always so high, Grandpa? You can relax, you know," Goten asked him.

"I am relaxed," Bardock countered. He then thought in his mind, '…Mostly. The stories the kids tell me do tend to distract me during my training. And that prank earlier… At least they got the message.'

"Huh… Don't you know how to lower your ki?" Goten questioned.

"The Nameks explained it to me, but I didn't have much time to learn it," Bardock responded.

"Well hey! How about I teach you?" Goten beamed. "It's real easy once you get the hang of it!"

"You? Teach me?" Bardock's pride felt a little hurt at the prospect of being taught by a child.

"Sure! It's a little boring around here anyways. Why not? Follow me, Grandpa!" Goten dashed to the training room.

Bardock closed the door and turned around to find Goten sat in the centre of the room, cross-legged. He walked over to him and remembered what the Namekians made him do, so he sat on the floor with one arm on his knee to prepare for what he knew was going to happen.

And sure enough, Goten described practically the same method for sensing a person's ki. Bardock just had to make it click somehow.

He sat as still as a statue for a good half hour but was beginning to get impatient. "Just what the hell am I doing wrong?" he muttered.

"Sssh! Concentrate!" whispered Goten, who was still sat cross-legged on the floor with his arms folded.

"Kid, it ain't working."

"It's only been a couple minutes!"

"It's been thirty, Goten. I'm leaving for some grub." Bardock shifted.

"Wait! How about you just focus on finding your own ki? Then you can find mine easier, I think," Goten suggested.

"Ugh. Fine." Bardock remained on the floor. "Care to tell me how?"

"Well… I can feel my own power from riiiight in here." He pointed to his stomach.

"So I just try to feel something in my stomach? Are you sure that what you're feelin' ain't just your breakfast?" Bardock rolled his eyes.

"Hey! I know what I'm talking about!" Goten pouted. "Just wait and see! You'll get it."

"Sure, kid…" And so, for the next dozen minutes or so, Bardock tried to feel something inside him by just sitting there.

He decided to transform into a Super Saiyan to see if that helped any. Goten was about to speak up but kept quiet, as he could see Bardock was really getting into it now.

Trunks was chilling out in another part of the ship. He sensed Bardock's energy shoot up, and thought, 'Hmph. So much for not training as Super Saiyans, huh.' He shook his head.

Back with Bardock, who now held his head low and his eyes shut, basked in the Super Saiyan energy he gave off. He knew it came from within him. Now he had to try and really grasp it. Feel its power as his grandson described.

But he just felt annoyed. Angry. That's what caused and fed the transformation, that much he knew. 'Gotta simmer down and really concentrate.'

Bardock attempted to do so, and almost powered down from Super Saiyan entirely, but managed to keep it alive.

"Wow! You just lowered your ki, Grandpa!" Goten called out.

Bardock looked up at him. "I did?"

"Yeah! Though… it's still really high 'cause you're a Super Saiyan… I don't think you're doing it right, yet, though," he commented, unsure.

"Ugh, fine." Bardock powered down from Super Saiyan and continued to sit and meditate exactly the same way as before. 'Goten mentioned I needed to "relax" when he said my power was too high. Am I being too tense, somehow?' Bardock thought.

"You just gotta relax your whole body! Have you found your ki inside you yet?" Goten asked.

"No," Bardock sighed in annoyance.

"Try lying down maybe?"

"Kid, just how much more relaxed can my body possibly get?!" Bardock groaned as he flopped onto his back with a scowl on his face.

"No, it's in your mind! When you feel your ki, you can control it since it's your own power!" Goten began to fluctuate his power subtly to help Bardock identify the change in his power.

Bardock's eyes were closed as he complained, sighing tiredly, "Just great. I've been firing blasts from my hands all my life, but you're telling me I've never-"

Goten tilted his head up at his pause.

"…Are you doing something?" Bardock asked, eyes still closed.

"Can you describe it?" Goten smirked.

"It's like… a wave of…"

""Of"…?"

"Something warm. But it keeps going warmer and cooler. Is… Is this it?" Bardock whispered in awe.

"You've got it! Try to feel other stuff like that around! Like yourself! Or even Trunks! His power's lowered though," Goten suggested.

"It feels weird to sense…" Bardock sat up and put his hands on his knees. "Inside my stomach, right?"

"Yup!"

"Oh, now I sense something. It's… warm, too. Warmer than yours, and it's just staying warm."

"Wanna try lowering it?" Goten chuckled.

"This is nuts," Bardock said, "But alright." 'Grasp it and control it… Grasp and control…'

"Your aura isn't supposed to come out! You gotta reign it in! Do the opposite of what you're doing!" Goten called.

Bardock's face twitched several times as he tried controlling his own power. Very gently did his power begin to fall, and with that, he had managed to get a proper hold on his own body's ki.

"You got it, Grandpa! It's going down!" Goten cheered, "You can stop it there, now!"

Bardock tried to disengage from his little zen mode he set himself in to sense ki, and opened his eyes. He looked down at his own hands as though seeing them in a whole different light, which essentially he was. He felt his whole body tingling with energy despite lowering his power. It was remarkable.

"Hm. Got there eventually. Gotta say, I'm impressed. This technique would've saved me a lot of time on some assignments, since sometimes I'd be temporarily blinded by my opponents, or they'd ambush me. Are there any other tricks you wanna show me?" Bardock smirked in satisfaction.

"Well… I'm not sure. We can't fire any blasts on the ship. And, I mean, you can already fly, you can turn Super Saiyan… I bet someone could help you get to Super Saiyan 2 sometime, if you wanted… How about I teach you the fusion dance?" Goten smiled.

"You and I are not doing the fusing thing. That's just plain weird-"

"Hahaha! Don't be silly, Grandpa! We can't fuse! You have to be a similar height to the other person to fuse!" Goten held his tummy, chuckling. "If we could fuse, I bet we'd probably look like my Dad!"

"…Riiight." Bardock's face looked uncomfortable. He looked over at Goten to find him poised with his arms to one side.

"Fuuuu-"

'The heck's he doing now?'

"-sion!"

'"Fusion"?'

"Ha!" Goten completed the routine for the fusion dance and Bardock looked unimpressed.

"And just what was that supposed to be?"

"That's how you perform the fusion technique! Another person has to stand on the opposite side to you and do the dance exactly the same, and then you both touch fingertips together! Then boom! You're one person."

Bardock sighed in disbelief, "You're kidding, right…? That dance looks embarrassing. I can't imagine doing that to save my own hide!"

Trunks was overhearing their conversation and chimed in, "Well Mom said our dads fused like that one time to save the Earth from being destroyed by a guy called Broly!"

"Hold on. What?! Broly?" Bardock looked stunned. "I heard his potential exceeded even your father's as an infant."

"Woah, that's crazy! Dad never told me that," Trunks responded, his eyes wider. "Long story short, though, Dad and Goku had to fuse otherwise Broly would've destroyed the Earth. Like this…" Trunks did a quick rendition of the fusion dance to emphasise what their dads did.

"Pfffffffff-" Bardock grinned, covering his mouth.

"Oh man. You're laughing 'cause my dad did the dance, aren't you." Trunks slouched.

"What kind of convincing must it've taken to persuade His Royal Highness into doing something so… silly?!" Bardock guffawed. "If it was Kakarot who talked him into it, then he has my respect! Heheheh!"

"It's like Trunks said, the whole world was at stake!" Goten put his hands on his hips.

"What was their name? Vegerot?" Bardock shook his head, chuckling.

"Uh… Mom didn't tell me," Trunks responded.

"Oh, Dad told me!" Goten piped up. "He said they became Gogeta and beat Broly up real good!"

"Ridiculous. All these new powers… Fusing with Saiyan royalty… Out of all the wacky nonsense I've heard from you two, the concept of fusion is definitely the most insane one," he replied.

Eventually, Bardock's chuckles died down, and the three made their way out of the training room. "I think it's time for some lunch," Bardock declared with a smirk.

Each day, Bardock would learn something new about the planet he was due to visit - the planet his son and his family called home.

He later learnt that his son and the Prince were off-world, training with those gods he learnt about.

He learnt about the androids and Cell, and about a time-travelling Trunks from the future, about the Ginyu Force's demise, and about his other grandson Gohan and how he gained Super Saiyan 2.

Mind you, these weren't first-hand accounts; these were some supposed facts he was being told by two pre-teens.

Despite his mild concern over the validity of the events, he found it immensely satisfying to know how far his son had come since he was that small child he and his wife had sent away.

He honestly couldn't wait to meet him again as an adult.

And the first thing he would do? Fight him, of course. Even though he knew just how outmatched he would be, he needed to feel his son's power!

[Thanks again to everyone for tuning in so far!]